User Simulation for Viewing Web Analytics Data

• US 20080184116A1
• Filed: 01/31/2007
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Error, Christopher R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,504,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/704
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]

Abstract

A system creates and shows a display that simulates the websites during a visit, the flow of the visit and the pace of the visit. The system includes a web analytics tool, a data storage, a focus group module and a virtual focus group user interface module. The focus group module interacts with the web analytics tool to extract information related to a particular visit by a visitor. The virtual focus group user interface module creates a user interface that presents a depiction of each website visited and displays those depictions to the user at a pace similar to the visitor'"'"'s actual interaction with the websites. The user interface also includes input mechanisms to select a particular portion of the visit, modify the pace at which the depictions are presented, find similar visits, as well as other functionality.

Claims

1. A method for simulating interaction with web pages by a visitor, the method comprising:

retrieving information for a visit including a plurality of web pages;

displaying the retrieved information as a simulation in a virtual focus group user interface having a first portion displaying a primary representation of one of the plurality of web pages, and a second portion displaying a relative position of the one of the plurality of web pages to the plurality of web pages;

receiving user input related to the simulation; and

changing the displaying based on the received user input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving information randomly selects a visit from a plurality of visits accessible by a user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

receiving a visit criterion for simulation from a user;

determining one or more matching visits that have criterion that match the received visit criterion; and

wherein the step of retrieving information selects the visit from the determined one or more matching visits.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the information in a report.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information includes:

a representation of each web page as viewed by the visitor during the visit;

a length of time the visitor viewed each web page;

an order in which the web pages were viewed; and

at least one segment related to one of the web pages.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying has a format and appearance of video in which the display is automatically transitioned to display each web page from the plurality of web pages for an amount of time approximately proportional to a time that the web page was viewed during the visit.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the user input is a modification to the display rate of primary representation by the user interface, and the changing step modifies the amount of time the primary representations of the plurality of web pages are displayed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying shows each of the plurality of web pages one at a time and advances to a next web page in the plurality of web pages in response to input from the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual focus group user interface has a third portion for presenting at least one segment related to the web page of the primary representation being displayed.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the segment is one from the group of customer ID, visit number, date visited, visit length, time spent on site, days since last visit, entry page, search engine, search term, products purchased, orders and visit value.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual focus group user interface includes an information box for displaying additional information about the web page corresponding to the primary representation, the additional information including one from the group of a name of the web page, a time the visitor spent on the web page, an event that occurred on the web page, and a number of refreshes of the web page that the visitor performed.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second portion includes a first card deck representative of a number of primary representations that have been simulated, and a second card deck representative of a number of primary representations that are to be simulated.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual focus group user interface includes a selectable tab for displaying in response to user selection a list of the visits included in a report.

14. A system for simulating interaction with web pages by a visitor, the system comprising:

a web analytics tool including data regarding visits, visitors and web pages;

a user interface module for generating a display that simulates web pages accessed during a visit, including a flow of the visit and a pace of the visit in transitioning between web pages, the user interface module coupled to the web analytics tool; and

a focus group module for extracting data from the web analytics tool related to a particular visit by the visitor, the focus group module coupled to the user interface module and the web analytics tool.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the web analytics tool further comprises data storage for storing data related to a plurality of visits, and wherein for each visit the data storage includes:

a representation of each web page as viewed by the visitor during the visit;

a length of time the visitor viewed each web page;

an order in which the web pages were viewed; and

at least one segment related to one of the web pages.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface module generates a display of web pages that is proportional to an amount of time that the web page was viewed by the visitor during the visit.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface module is responsive to input from the user and modifies the display rate of the web pages in response to user input.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface module generates a display having a first portion and a second portion, the first portion displaying a primary representation of one web page of the web pages accessed during the visit, and the second portion displaying a relative position of the one web page of the web pages accessed during the visit.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the user interface module generates a display having a third portion for presenting at least one segment related to a web page representation displayed in the first portion.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the segment is one from the group of customer ID, visit number, date visited, visit length, time spent on site, days since last visit, entry page, search engine, search term, products purchased, orders and visit value.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the user interface module generates a display that includes an information box for displaying additional information about a web page corresponding to the primary representation, the additional information including one from the group of a name of the web page, a time the visitor spent on the web page, an event that occurred on the web page, and a number of refreshes of the web page that the visitor performed.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the second portion includes a first card deck representative of a number of primary representations that have been simulated, and a second card deck representative of a number of primary representations that are to be simulated.

23. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface module generates a display that includes a selectable tab for displaying in response to user selection a list of the visits included in a report.