Enhanced online user-interaction tracking and document rendition

• US 10,558,712 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2018
• Issued: 02/11/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ResearchGATE GmbH
• Original Assignee: ResearchGATE GmbH
• Inventors: Zholudev, Vyacheslav, Magenheimer, Peter, Hausler, Michael, Alvares, Darren, Tolke, Axel, Kelly, Niall, Howard-Banks, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Keehn, Richard G
• Application Number:
  US15/965,666
• Publication Number:
  US 20180246888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1044 Group management mechanisms management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods for enhanced tracking of user interactions with online documents, such as, in accordance with various embodiments, interaction tracking on a sub-document level of granularity and/or interaction tracking that involves storing one or more interaction parameters (e.g., an identifier of the document or of the interacting user) for each interaction.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

for a document comprising a plurality of individual document elements, storing database entries for the individual document elements in one or more computer-readable media, each database entry comprising a unique document-element identifier;

during display of the document on a client device, tracking user interactions with the individual document elements;

storing in the one or more computer-readable media, for each of the tracked interactions, one or more interaction parameters comprising at least the document-element identifier of the interacted-with document element;

using one or more hardware processors, computing interaction metrics for document portions each consisting of one or more of the document elements, each interaction metric comprising an interaction count for the respective document portion; and

updating a web page rendering the document to include heat-map data reflecting the computed interaction metrics.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the web page to include the heat-map data comprises displaying a heat map, overlaid onto or placed alongside the contents of the document, that visually encodes the computed interaction metrics for the document portions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the web page to include the heat-map data comprises displaying the computed interaction metrics for the document portions numerically or in a diagram.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in the one or more computer-readable media, for each of the tracked user interactions, one or more additional interaction parameters, wherein the interaction metrics are aggregated over specified ranges or sets of values of the one or more additional interaction parameters.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more additional interaction parameters include, for each of the tracked interactions, an identifier of the interacting user, and wherein the interaction counts are aggregated for each interaction metric over a specified group of users.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more additional interaction parameters include, for each of the tracked interactions, an interaction type, and wherein the interaction counts are aggregated for each interaction metric over a specified set of one or more interaction types.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more additional interaction parameters include, for each of the tracked interactions, a time of interaction, and wherein the interaction counts are aggregated for each interaction metric over a specified time window.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein, in the interaction counts, the tracked user interactions are weighted based on the one or more additional interaction parameters.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracked user interactions are clustered based on an associated sentiment and interaction metrics are computed separately for separate clusters, and wherein heat-map data for each of the sentiments is included in the updated website.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the heat-map data is displayed as a function of time.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking user interactions with the document elements comprises tracking an indirect user interaction with a first document element based on a direct user interaction with a second document element referencing the first document element.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to a user request for access to the document, automatically directing the user to a most-read portion of the document.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising rendering the document elements in an order depending on relative user-interaction levels associated with the document elements.

14. A system comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing database entries for a plurality of individual document elements collectively constituting contents of a document, each of the database entries comprising a unique document-element identifier; and

one or more computer processors executing instructions stored in the one or more machine-readable media to perform operations comprising;

in response to receipt, from client devices displaying the document, of information about tracked user interactions with the individual document elements, the information including one or more interaction parameters including at least the document-element identifiers of the interacted-with document elements, computing interaction metrics for document portions each consisting of one or more of the document elements, each interaction metric comprising an interaction count for the respective document portion, and updating a web page rendering the document to include heat-map data reflecting the computed interaction metrics.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the information is received as an activity stream comprising tuples of interaction parameters, the interaction parameters including document-element identifiers of the interacted-with documents.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein updating the web page to include the heat-map data comprises displaying a heat map, overlaid onto or placed alongside the contents of the document, that visually encodes the computed interaction metrics for the document portions.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein updating the web page to include the heat-map data comprises displaying the computed interaction metrics for the document portions numerically or in a diagram.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the information includes one or more additional interaction parameters, and wherein the interaction metrics are aggregated over specified ranges or sets of values of the one or more additional interaction parameters.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more additional interaction parameters include, for each of the tracked interactions, at least one of an identifier of the interacting user, an interaction type, or a time of interaction.

20. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the one or more processors to perform operations for updating a web page rendering a document based on tracked user interactions with individual elements of the document, the operations comprising:

based on information about the tracked user interactions including at least unique document-element identifiers of the interacted-with document elements, computing interaction metrics for document portions each consisting of one or more of the document elements, each interaction metric comprising an interaction count for the respective document portion, and updating a web page rendering the document to include heat-map data reflecting the computed interaction metrics.