Integration of visualizations, reports, and data

• US 7,917,382 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2003
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Teradata US, Inc. (Teradata Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Teradata US, Inc. (Teradata Corporation)
• Inventors: Srikant, Sreedhar, Do, Giai, Haque, Ahsan U., Devarakonda, Kavitha, Dunsker, Eric, Boerger, Ellen, Cereghini, Paul, Papierniak, Karen
• Primary Examiner(s): Jasmin; Lynda C
• Assistant Examiner(s): MANSFIELD, THOMAS L
• Application Number:
  US10/378,682
• Publication Number:
  US 20040174397A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,946 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/7.31
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method of graphically displaying the path of a customer traversing a web site and related business data is described. The method includes receiving a user request for a visualization. The user request may include data filters and exclusions. Responsive to the user request, traffic data is selected for analysis. The selected traffic data is analyzed and displayed to the user. The display may be in the form of a visualization including a graph and related business data. The graph may be of an overview, referral, path, page-to-page path, and animation type. A system for visualizing traffic patterns and the path of a customer at a site is described in conjunction with the above method. The system includes a logical data model, a dimensional data model, a report specification, a graphical interface, metadata database and an analysis report. The graphical interface is used for viewing visualization information.

Claims

1. A method of analyzing and graphically displaying web traffic data, comprising the steps of:

capturing traffic data generated by customers visiting a web site and storing said captured traffic data in a computerized database;

receiving a user request, wherein the user request includes a visualization request;

selecting traffic data from said database in response to receiving the user request;

analyzing the selected traffic data; and

displaying the analyzed selected traffic data to the user; and

wherein said visualization request includes a data filter specification including at least one of date range, sales range, margin range, items purchased range, customer type, referrer type, and number of customers.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the visualization request includes a graphic format specification.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the visualization request includes a business data specification.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzed selected traffic data displayed is displayed in at least one of an overview, referral, path, page-to-page, and animation type display.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the overview type display includes an overview graph and site-related business data.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the site-related business data includes at least one of sales dollars, margin dollars, conversion rate, abandonment rate, sales versus prior period, revenue versus prior period, number of customers converted for an item, number of customers abandoning an item on a page, number of customers abandoning a page, number of items sold, number of customers visiting, and average dwell time.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the referral type display includes a referral graph and referral-related business data.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the referral-related business data includes at least one of number of customers referred from each referrer, conversion rate of customers from each referrer, abandonment rate of customers from each referrer, total sales of customers from each referrer, profitability of customers from each referrer, and margin of customers from each referrer.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the referral-related business data includes, for each referral source, at least one of sales from referred customers, conversion rate of referred customers, abandonment rate of referred customers, and average number of basket items for referred customers.

10. The method of claim 4 wherein the path type display includes a path graph and path-related business data.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the path-related business data includes at least one of a number of customers passing through a page, and a percentage of total traffic between a start and end page passing through a page.

12. The method of claim 4 wherein the page-to-page type display includes a page-to-page path graph and page-to-page related business data.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the page-to-page related business data includes at least one of a number of customers passing through a page, and a percentage of total traffic between a start and end page passing through a page.

14. A method of analyzing and graphically displaying web traffic data, comprising the steps of:

capturing web traffic data generated by customers visiting a web site and storing said captured web traffic data in a computerized database;

receiving a user request, wherein the user request includes a visualization request;

selecting web traffic data in response to receiving the user request;

analyzing the selected web traffic data; and

displaying the analyzed selected web traffic data to the user; and

wherein said visualization request includes a data exclusion specification including a date threshold value, a sales threshold value, a margin threshold value, an items purchased threshold value, and a number of customers threshold value.

15. A computer-implemented system for analyzing and graphically displaying web traffic data, comprising:

a computerized database for storing traffic data generated by customers visiting a web site;

a visualization application for analyzing and displaying traffic data selected from said database; and

a user interface a user submits a user request, said user request including a visualization request; and

wherein said visualization application;

selects traffic data from said database in response to said user request;

analyzes the selected traffic data; and

displays the analyzed selected traffic data to the user; and

wherein said visualization request includes a data filter specification including at least one of date range, sales range, margin range, items purchased range, customer type, referrer type, and number of customers.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the visualization application displays the analyzed selected traffic data in at least one of an overview graph, a referral graph, a path graph, a page-to-page path graph, and an animation graph.

17. The system of claim 15, said visualization application further comprising a relational-to-graph converter and a graph layout converter.

18. A computer-implemented system for analyzing and graphically displaying web traffic data, comprising:

a computerized database for storing traffic data generated by customers visiting a web site;

a visualization application for analyzing and displaying traffic data selected from said database; and

a user interface a user submits a user request, said user request including a visualization request; and

wherein said visualization application;

selects traffic data from said database in response to said user request;

analyzes the selected traffic data; and

displays the analyzed selected traffic data to the user; and

wherein said visualization request includes a data exclusion specification including a date threshold value, a sales threshold value, a margin threshold value, an items purchased threshold value, and a number of customers threshold value.