System and method for analyzing system visitor activities

• US 20030115333A1
• Filed: 07/05/2002
• Published: 06/19/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ignite Enterprise Software Solutions LLC
• Original Assignee: ClickFox Inc.
• Inventors: Cohen, Tal, Feinstein, Ami, Jerding, Dean, Harel, Nissim
• Granted Patent: US 7,644,134 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A method of analysis of the performance of defined visitor tasks at a host'"'"'s web site. Tasks are defined a sequence of web pages with which the host wishes the visitor to view or interact. The method allows a given task to be provided, compares the desired task to current visitor behavior to determine frequency, manner and completion of the task and analyzes the task-related information for anomalies and trends in the completion, or lack thereof, of the desired tasks.

Claims

1. A method of task analysis of a system, the system having states, interaction with the system being organized into sessions, sessions corresponding to paths taken through the states of the system, the method comprising:

(a) defining a task as one or more states of the system;

(b) identifying from the interaction with the system the occurrence of the states and the paths taken through the states during the sessions; and

(c) presenting a task statistic regarding the occurrence of the states and the occurrence of the task in the interactions with the system.

2. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of graphically displaying the task statistic.

3. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of recommending system modifications to improve the occurrences of the task.

4. The method of task analysis according to claim 3 further comprising the step of presenting the recommended system modifications.

5. The method of task analysis according to claim 3 further comprising the step of modifying the system based on the recommended system modifications.

6. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of filtering the interaction.

7. The method of task analysis according to claim 1, wherein the system is a web site, and wherein the states are pages of the web site.

8. The method of task analysis according to claim 1, wherein the system is a web application, and wherein the states are logical states of the web application.

9. The method of task analysis according to claim 1, wherein the system is interactive voice response, and wherein the states are voice response prompts.

10. The method of task analysis according to claim 1, wherein the step of defining a task enables user definition of the task, the user selecting the states via an interactive graphical display.

11. The method of task analysis according to claim 1, wherein the step of defining a task is provided by a user via a task editor.

12. The method of task analysis according to claim 1, wherein the step of defining a task enables user definition of the task, the user selecting a focal step of interest, the direction of the task with respect to the focal step, and length of the task.

13. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of identifying from the interaction with the system the number of direct task completions during the sessions.

14. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of identifying from the interaction with the system the number of indirect task completions during the sessions.

15. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of identifying from the interaction with the system the number of task completions during the sessions.

16. The method of task analysis according to claim 15, wherein a task completion is defined by the group consisting of match all, match all not overlapping, match all not overlapping only after completion, match first, match n^th, match head and match tail.

17. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of identifying the number of interactions to complete the task, and wherein the task statistic includes the average number of interactions to complete the task in the session.

18. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of identifying the number of interactions to complete the task, and wherein the task statistic includes the average number of interactions to complete the task in the session divided by the minimum number of interactions to complete the task.

19. The method of task analysis according to claim 1, wherein the task statistic includes the average amount of time to complete the task in the session.

20. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of graphically displaying a task overview providing one or more of an overview of the task statistic, paths through the task, and related tasks.

21. The method of task analysis according to claim 1 further comprising the step of graphically displaying a representation of interactions through the states of the task.

22. A method of task analysis of visitor interactions with a web site, the web site including web pages and links between the pages, visitor interactions with the web site being organized into sessions, sessions corresponding to paths taken through the web site, the method comprising:

(a) defining a task as one or more task steps, a task step being a visitor interaction to one or more web pages in the web site;

(b) identifying from the interactions with the web site the occurrence of the task steps and the paths taken through the task steps during the sessions; and

(c) presenting a task statistic regarding the occurrence of the task steps in the interactions with the web site.

23. The method of task analysis according to claim 22 further comprising the step of graphically displaying the task statistic.

24. The method of task analysis according to claim 22 further comprising the step of recommending system modifications to improve the occurrences of the task.

25. The method of task analysis according to claim 24 further comprising the step of presenting the recommended system modifications.

26. The method of task analysis according to claim 24 further comprising the step of modifying the system based on the recommended system modifications.

27. The method of task analysis according to claim 22 further comprising the step of filtering the interactions.

28. The method of task analysis according to claim 22, wherein the step of defining a task comprises defining the task as pages of the web site linked from a common referring web page.

29. The method of task analysis according to claim 28, wherein the step of defining a task comprises defining the task as the page identified by the n^th link provided by the common referring web page.

30. The method of task analysis according to claim 22, wherein the step of defining a task comprises visual task selection via a visit tracker display of sequential interactions with the system by recognizing visual patterns.

31. The method of task analysis according to claim 22, wherein the step of defining a task comprises exhaustive dominant task detection.

32. The method of task analysis according to claim 22 further comprising the step of determining from the interactions with the web site the performance of the task according to a task analysis characteristic.

33. The method of task analysis according to claim 32, wherein the task analysis characteristic is direct task completion.

34. The method of task analysis according to claim 32, wherein the task analysis characteristic is indirect task completion.

35. The method of task analysis according to claim 32, wherein the task analysis characteristic is the number of task completions.

36. The method of task analysis according to claim 35, wherein a task completion is defined by the group consisting of match all, match all not overlapping, match all not overlapping only after completion, match first, match n^th, match head and match tail.

37. The method of task analysis according to claim 27, wherein the step of identifying from the interactions with the web site the occurrence of the task steps and the paths taken through the task steps during the sessions comprises identifying from the filtered interactions with the web site the occurrence of the task steps and the paths taken through the task steps during the sessions.

38. The method of task analysis according to claim 37, wherein the step of filtering the interactions filters the interactions according to the group consisting of time of interaction duration, time of interaction commencement and time of interaction termination.

39. The method of task analysis according to claim 37, wherein the step of filtering the interactions filters the interactions according to the group consisting of whether the first step in the interaction is/is not one of a predefined set of steps, whether the last step in the interaction is/is not one of a predefined set of steps, and whether a referral for the interaction is/is not one of a predefined set of referrals.

40. The method of task analysis according to claim 37, wherein the step of filtering the interactions filters the interactions according to whether an interaction includes/does not include a predefined set of steps.

41. The method of task analysis according to claim 37, wherein the step of filtering the interactions filters the interactions according to the number of discrete users providing the interactions.

42. The method of task analysis according to claim 37, wherein the step of filtering the interactions filters the interactions according to the geography of a user providing the interactions.

43. The method of task analysis according to claim 37, wherein the step of filtering the interactions filters the interactions according to the platform utilized by a user providing the interactions.

44. The method of task analysis according to claim 37, wherein the step of filtering the interactions filters the interactions according to the group of task characteristics consisting of task completion, task non-completion, start of a task, and start of a task that is not complete.

45. The method of task analysis according to claim 22, further comprising the step of compiling a list of anomalies in the occurrence of the task.

46. The method of task analysis according to claim 22, further comprising the step of compiling a list of trends in the occurrence of the task.