Configuring an application task list of an application based on previous selections of application tasks

• US 9,280,252 B1
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Issued: 03/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Brandmaier, Jennifer A., Gillespie, James, Hughes, Stephen, Koza, Daniel, Loo, William, Lowry, Francis
• Primary Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Application Number:
  US13/791,308
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• Field of Search: 705 3- 44
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management

Abstract

An insurance application operating at a mobile computing device may request a set of recommended insurance tasks for a recommendation engine. The request may identify a user associated with the insurance application, and the recommendation engine may associate the user with a user group based on user profile attributes associated with the user. The recommendation engine may determine which tasks available for selection at the insurance application to include in the set of recommended insurance tasks based on selection trend data associated with the user group. The recommendation engine may provide the set of recommended insurance tasks to the insurance application, and the insurance application may configure an insurance task list that includes insurance tasks of the set of recommended insurance tasks.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for operating a mobile application on a mobile computing device comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, a request for a set of recommended application tasks selected from a set of application tasks a mobile application is configured to perform, wherein the request identifies a user associated with the mobile application;

identifying, by the computing device, a user group that the user is associated with based, at least in part, on one or more user attributes of the user;

selecting, by the computing device, one or more application tasks from the set of application tasks to include in the set of recommended application tasks based, at least in part, on selection trend data that identifies one or more of the application tasks in the set of application tasks that have been previously selected by one or more users of the user group wherein selecting the one or more application tasks from the set of application tasks comprises;

determining whether to include, in the set of recommended application tasks, one of the application tasks in the set of application tasks based, at least in part, on an aggregated relevancy score obtained, for that application task, by aggregating a plurality of relevancy scores obtained for that application task, each of the plurality of relevancy scores being respectively associated with a user attribute of a set of user attributes; and

providing, by the computing device to the mobile application, the set of recommended application tasks wherein receipt of the set of recommended application tasks causes the mobile application to configure an application task list that includes at least one of the application tasks of the set of recommend application tasks.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more application tasks to include in the set of recommended application tasks includes:

obtaining, for each application task in the set of application tasks, at least one relevancy score; and

determining whether to include one of the application tasks in the set of recommended application tasks based, at least in part, on the relevancy score for that application task.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the at least one relevancy score is associated with individual user groups of a set of user groups.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein determining whether to include the application task in the set of recommended application tasks comprises:

determining whether to include the application task in the set of recommended application tasks based on a comparison of the relevancy score for the application task to a predetermined relevancy threshold.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the relevancy score for the application task corresponds to a number of times the application task has been selected by one or more users of the user group divided by a number of times the application task has been displayed to the one or more users of the user group.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein individual user attributes of the set of user attributes are associated with respective weight values;

and

the aggregated relevancy score is based, at least in part, on one or more of the weight values.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the set of application tasks comprises a set of insurance-related questions.

8. A mobile computing device comprising:

one or more processors;

a data store configured to store user profile data associated with a user and selection trend data that identifies one or more application tasks in a set of application tasks a mobile application is configured to perform that have been previously selected by one or more users associated with one or more user groups;

a display configured to present a user interface of the mobile application; and

memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by one of the processors, cause the device to

i) process a request for a set of recommended application tasks selected from the set of application tasks, wherein the request identifies a user associated with the mobile application;

ii) identify one of the user groups that the user is associated with based, at least in part, on the user profile data,

iii) select one or more application tasks from the set of application tasks to include in the set of recommended application tasks based, at least in part, on at least a portion of the selection trend data wherein selecting the one or more application comprises;

determining whether to include, in the set of recommended application tasks, one of the application tasks in the set of application tasks based, at least in part, on an aggregated relevancy score obtained, for that application task, by aggregating a plurality of relevancy scores obtained for that application task, each of the plurality of relevancy scores being respectively associated with a user attribute of a set of user attributes,

iv) configure an application task list of the mobile application based, at least in part, on the set of recommended application tasks, and

v) present the application task list at the user interface of the mobile application.

9. The mobile computing device of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed by one of the processors, further cause the device to:

determine that an event has occurred;

identify a first application task in the set of application tasks that is configured to respond to the event; and

include the first application task in the set of recommended application tasks.

10. The mobile computing device of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed by one of the processors, further cause the device to:

present, at the user interface of the mobile application, a notification that the event occurred;

present, at the user interface, a suggestion to select the first application task configured to respond to the event; and

present, at the user interface, a prompt to accept or reject the first application task suggested.

11. The mobile computing device of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed by one of the processors, further cause the device to store, at the data store, new selection trend data indicating whether the first application task was accepted or rejected.

12. The mobile computing device of claim 9, wherein the event is selected from the group consisting of:

a start of an insurance premium payment period;

a filing of a new insurance claim;

an update to an existing insurance claim; and

a determination of asset loss.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause a mobile computing device to:

execute a mobile application configured to perform a set of application tasks;

select a set of recommended application tasks from the set of application tasks, the set of recommended application tasks comprising one or more application tasks determined to be relevant to a user group that a user of the mobile computing device is associated with wherein selecting the one or more application tasks from the set of application tasks comprises;

determining whether to include, in the set of recommended application tasks, one of the application tasks in the set of application tasks based, at least in part, on an aggregated relevancy score obtained, for that application task, by aggregating a plurality of relevancy scores obtained for that application task, each of the plurality of relevancy scores being respectively associated with a user attribute of a set of user attributes;

configuring an application task list of the mobile application based, at least in part, on the set of recommended application tasks; and

displaying the application task list at a user interface of the mobile application.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein configuring the application task list comprises selecting one or more of the application tasks in the set of recommended application tasks to include in the application task list.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein configuring the application task list further comprises arranging individual application tasks included in the application task list based, at least in part, on individual relevancy scores respectively associated with the individual application tasks.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the mobile computing device to:

generate a selection message in response to receipt, at the user interface of the mobile application, of user input selecting one of the application tasks included in the application task list wherein the selection message identifies the application task selected; and

increase a relevancy score associated with the application task selected.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the mobile computing device to:

determine that the set of recommended application tasks does not include the application task selected; and

configuring the selection message to indicate that the set of recommended application tasks does not include the application task selected.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the computer-readable instruction, when executed by the processor, further cause the mobile computing device to:

configure the selection message to identify one or more application tasks of the application task list that were displayed but not selected; and

decrease, for each application task not selected, of a relevancy score associated with the application task not selected.