User simulation for viewing web analytics data

• US 8,504,348 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2007
• Issued: 08/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Error, Christopher R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Kamini S
• Assistant Examiner(s): OSBORNE, LUKE R
• Application Number:
  US11/669,876
• Publication Number:
  US 20080184116A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,379 Days
• Field of Search: 703/20, 703/22, 703/23, 703/26, 703/6, 715744-747, 715/825, 715/704, 715/833, 715/730, 715/764, 715/767, 717/104, 717/134, 717/135
• US Class Current: 703/22
• 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 a previously captured interaction with content pages by a visitor, the method comprising:

retrieving, from a data storage, information about a previous visit to a network site by the visitor, the information including a plurality of content pages previously accessed by the visitor during the previous visit;

displaying, on a display device, the retrieved information as a simulation in a virtual focus group user interface, the displayed simulation comprising;

a first portion displaying a primary representation of one of the plurality of content pages; and

a second portion displaying a representation of the plurality of content pages previously accessed by the visitor during the previous visit visually arranged in sequence according to an order in which the plurality of content pages were accessed by the visitor during the previous visit and providing a visual indication of a position of the content page displayed in the first portion relative to the plurality of content pages visually arranged in sequence, wherein the second portion displayed comprises;

a first slide deck icon comprising a first stack of slides representative of one or more of the plurality of content pages that were accessed by the visitor during a first portion of the previous visit that occurred prior to accessing the content page displayed in the first portion, wherein the number of slides in the first stack of the first slide deck corresponds to a number of the one or more of the plurality of content pages accessed during the first portion of the visit; and

a second slide deck icon comprising a second stack of slides representative of one or more of the plurality of content pages that were accessed by the visitor during a second portion of the previous visit that occurred subsequent to accessing the content page displayed in the first portion, wherein the number of slides in the second stack of the second slide deck corresponds to a number of the one or more of the plurality of content pages accessed during the second portion of the visit;

receiving, from a computing device, input related to the simulation; and

changing the displaying on the display device based on the received input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving information comprises randomly selecting a visit from a plurality of visits stored in the data storage.

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 comprises selecting the previous visit from the determined one or more matching visits.

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

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

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

a length of time the visitor viewed each content page during the previous visit;

an order in which the content pages were viewed during the previous visit; and

at least one segment related to one of the content pages viewed during the previous visit.

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

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the input comprises a modification to a display rate of the primary representation by the user interface, and wherein changing the display comprises modifying the amount of time the primary representations of one of the plurality of content pages are displayed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying shows each of the plurality of content pages in the first portion one at a time and advances to a next content page in the plurality of content pages in response to input from a 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 one of the plurality of content pages 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 one of the plurality of content pages corresponding to the primary representation, the additional information including one from the group of a name of the content page, a time the visitor spent on the content page, an event that occurred on the content page, and a number of refreshes of the content page that the visitor performed.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein during displaying the retrieved information as a simulation

the first slide deck icon is representative of a first portion of the plurality of content pages that have already been displayed in the simulation and

the second slide deck icon is representative of a second portion of the plurality of content pages that are to be displayed in the simulation.

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 previous visits to a network site included in a report.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable program modules for simulating a previously captured interaction with content pages by a visitor, the computer-executable program modules comprising:

an analytics tool storing data regarding a plurality of previous content page visits;

a user interface module for generating a display of a simulation of one of the previous content page visits, wherein the display depicts a flow of content pages accessed by the visitor during the previous content page visit and a pace of transitions between the content pages accessed by the visitor during the previous content page visit, wherein the display comprises;

a first portion for displaying a primary representation of one of the content pages accessed by the visitor during the previous content page visit; and

a second portion displaying a representation of the plurality of content pages previously accessed by the visitor during the previous content page visit visually arranged in sequence according to an order in which the content pages were accessed by the visitor during the previous content page visit and providing a visual indication of a position of the content page displayed in the first portion relative to the plurality of content pages visually arranged in sequence, wherein the second portion displayed comprises;

a first slide deck icon comprising a first stack of slides representative of one or more of the plurality of content pages that were accessed by the visitor during a first portion of the previous visit that occurred prior to accessing the content page displayed in the first portion, wherein the number of slides in the first stack of the first slide deck corresponds to a number of the one or more of the plurality of content pages accessed during the first portion of the visit; and

a second slide deck icon comprising a second stack of slides representative of one or more of the plurality of content pages that were accessed by the visitor during a second portion of the previous visit that occurred subsequent to accessing the content page displayed in the first portion, wherein the number of slides in the second stack of the second slide deck corresponds to a number of the one or more of the plurality of content pages accessed during the second portion of the visit; and

a focus group module for extracting data from the analytics tool related to the one of the previous content page visits, the focus group module coupled to the user interface module and the analytics tool.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the analytics tool further comprises data storage for storing data related to the plurality of previous content page visits, and wherein for each of the plurality of content page visits the data storage includes:

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

a length of time the visitor viewed each content page during the content page visit;

an order in which the content pages were viewed during the content page visit; and

at least one segment related to one of the content pages viewed during the content page visit.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the user interface module generates a display of a primary representation of content pages in the first portion for a period of time that is proportional to an amount of time that the content page was viewed by the visitor during the previous content page visit.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the user interface module is responsive to input from the user and modifies the display rate of the content pages in the simulation in response to the input from the user.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of content pages previously accessed by the visitor during the previous content page visit are visually arranged in sequence according to an order in which a primary representation associated with each of the at least two representations is to be displayed in the first portion during the simulation.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the user interface module generates a display having a third portion for presenting at least one segment related to a content page of the primary representation displayed in the first portion.

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

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein during displaying the retrieved information as a simulation

the first slide deck icon is representative of a first portion of the plurality of content pages that have already been displayed in the simulation and

the second slide deck icon is representative of a second portion of the plurality of content pages that are to be displayed in the simulation.

23. The computer-readable storage medium 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 previous visits to a network site included in a report.