TY - JOUR
T1 - User profiling and virtual agents
T2 - a case study on e-commerce services
AU - Sønderstrup-Andersen, Hans H. K.
AU - Andersen, Verner
AU - de Gemmis, Marco
AU - Semeraro, Giovanni
AU - Lops, Pasquale
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - The main contribution of this work is the design of an application framework based on both conversational agents and user profiling technologies for the development of e-commerce services. User profiles are exploited by conversational agents to help customers in retrieving potentially interesting products from a catalogue. Three techniques were used for collecting data for a usability test: eye-movement tracking, questionnaire, and recording the user-system dialogue. The main outcomes of the experimental sessions are: (1) the dialogue capabilities of the agent facilitate the interaction between the user and the e-commerce site; and, (2) user profiles improve the retrieval capabilities of the agent. Finally, some limitations of the user profiling techniques adopted in the framework are discussed and a more sophisticated content-based profiling technique is proposed.
AB - The main contribution of this work is the design of an application framework based on both conversational agents and user profiling technologies for the development of e-commerce services. User profiles are exploited by conversational agents to help customers in retrieving potentially interesting products from a catalogue. Three techniques were used for collecting data for a usability test: eye-movement tracking, questionnaire, and recording the user-system dialogue. The main outcomes of the experimental sessions are: (1) the dialogue capabilities of the agent facilitate the interaction between the user and the e-commerce site; and, (2) user profiles improve the retrieval capabilities of the agent. Finally, some limitations of the user profiling techniques adopted in the framework are discussed and a more sophisticated content-based profiling technique is proposed.
U2 - 10.1007/s10209-008-0116-1
DO - 10.1007/s10209-008-0116-1
M3 - Journal article
VL - 7
SP - 179
EP - 194
JO - Universal Access in the Information Society
JF - Universal Access in the Information Society
SN - 1615-5289
IS - 3
ER -