Evaluating user interface efficiency

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016253061-A1
Application number	US-201415032700-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 30, 2014
Priority date	Jan 30, 2014
Publication date	Sep 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for evaluating user interface efficiency includes discerning user actions with the user interface occurring between each of a plurality of adjacent pairs of transaction points. Those adjacent pairs of transaction points are evaluated to identify a given one of a plurality of user flows associated with the user interface. The identified user actions occurring between each adjacent pair of transaction points are assessed to calculate an efficiency score. The efficiency score is associated with the identified user flow and is indicative of user interface efficiency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for evaluating user interface efficiency, comprising:
discerning user actions with the user interface occurring between each of a plurality of adjacent pairs of transaction points; evaluating the plurality of adjacent pairs of transaction points to identify a given one of a plurality of user flows associated with the user interface; assessing the user actions occurring between each adjacent pair of transaction points to calculate an efficiency score; and associating the efficiency score with the identified user flow, the efficiency score indicative of user interface efficiency.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the user actions are discerned or a given session, the method comprising:
processing the efficiency score with a plurality of other efficiency scores calculated for the user flow to determine an efficiency indicator for the identified user flow, the plurality of other efficiency scores having been calculated based on user actions with the user interface discerned during other sessions.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
discerning user actions comprises discerning user actions of varying types; and assessing the user actions comprises assessing the user actions to identify the efficiency score such that user actions of different types impact the score differently.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein:
discerning user actions comprises discerning user actions of varying types occurring within each of a plurality of action states and in shifts between any two of the plurality of action states; and
assessing the user actions comprises assessing the user action to identify an efficiency score such that user actions of different types impact the score differently and user actions of a given one of the varying types impact the efficiency score differently depending on whether those user actions occur within an action state or in a shift between action states.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
evaluating the plurality of adjacent pairs of transaction points comprises evaluating the plurality of adjacent transaction points to identify a first user flow represented by a first sequence of the transaction points and a second user flow represented by a second sequence of the transaction points; evaluating the user actions comprises evaluating the user actions occurring between each adjacent pair of transaction points of the first sequence to identify a first efficiency score and evaluating the user actions occurring between each adjacent pair of transaction points of the second sequence to identify a second efficiency score; associating comprises associating the first efficiency score with the first user flow and associating the second efficiency score with the second user flow.

6 . A memory resource storing instructions that when executed cause a processing resource to implement a system for evaluating user interface efficiency, the instructions comprising:
a transaction module executable to detect occurrences of a first transaction point and a subsequent second transaction point; an action module executable to identify user actions with the user interface occurring between the first and second transaction points; a report module executable to generate an efficiency record including first data indicative of the first and second transaction points and second data indicative of the user actions occurring between the first and second transaction points, the efficiency record configured to be processed with other efficiency records to identify a user flow using the first data and an efficiency of the user interface with respect to the identified user flow using the second data.

7 . The memory resource of claim 6 , wherein;
the action module is executable to discern between a plurality of different types of user actions; the second data indicates, for each identified user action occurring between the first and second transaction points, an action type for that user action; and the efficiency record is configured to be processed to identify a score indicative of the efficiency of the user interface, the score being impacted differently by different action types indicated by the second data.

8 . The memory resource of claim 6 , wherein:
the action module is executable to discern between a plurality of different types of user actions occurring within each of a plurality of action states and in shifts between the actions states: the second data indicates, for each identified user action occurring between the first and second transaction points, an action type for that user action and whether that user action occurred within an action state or in a shift between action states; and the efficiency record is configured to be processed to identify a score indicative of the efficiency of the user interface, the score being impacted differently by different action types and by whether each identified user action occurred within an action state or in a shift between action states.

9 . The memory resource of claim 6 , wherein:
the transaction module is executable to detect occurrences of a plurality of sequential transaction points representing the user flow, the plurality including the first and second transaction points; the action module is executable to identify user actions with the user interface occurring between adjacent pairs of the plurality of transaction points; the report module is executable to generate a sequence of efficiency records, one for each adjacent pair of transaction points, each efficiency record including first data indicate of its corresponding pair of transaction points and second data indicative of the identified user actions occurring between those adjacent transaction points; and wherein the sequence of efficiency records is configured to be processed to identify the user flow and an efficiency score for the user flow.

10 . The memory resource of claim 9 , wherein each of the sequence of efficiency records includes third data identifying a user and wherein the sequence of efficiency records is configured to be processed to identify an efficiency score for the identified user that can be compared to efficiency scores for other users.

11 . A system for evaluating user interface efficiency for an application, the system comprising:
a flow detection engine to discern a user flow from a plurality of transaction points for an application, the user flow being represented by a plurality of adjacent pairs of the transaction points; a data engine to identify user actions of varying types with the application's user interface occurring between each adjacent pair of transaction points representing the specified user flow; an evaluation engine to evaluate the identified user actions to determine an efficiency score associated with the user flow, the efficiency score being impacted differently by the different types of identified actions.

12 . The system of claim 1 wherein:
the flow detection engine is configured to discern a first user flow from a first sequence of the plurality of transaction points and a second user flow from a second sequence of the plurality of transaction points;
the data engine is configured to identify first user actions with the application's user interface occurring between adjacent pairs of transaction points in the first sequence and second user actions with the application's user interface occurring between adjacent pairs of transaction point in the second sequence;
the evaluation engine is configured to evaluate the first user actions to determine a first efficiency score associated with the first user flow and to evaluate the second user action to det

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Development Co Lp

Inventors

• Nitsan Amichai
• Peisachov Yael
• Koren Yuval

Classifications

• G06F2201/87

  Monitoring of transactions · CPC title

• G06F11/3438 Primary

  monitoring of user actions (tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535) · CPC title

• G06F3/0484 Primary

  for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range · CPC title

• G06F17/2288

  Physics · mapped topic