System and method for context and community based customization for a user experience

Abstract

A system and method for context and community based customization for a user experience is disclosed. The apparatus in an example embodiment includes a user experience customizer to gather context information, automatically produce user experience customization selections based on the context information, collect user activity feedback from a community of users, and use the user activity feedback to adjust the user experience customizer to automatically produce user experience customization selections likely favored by a user based on a correlation of the user activity feedback with the context information.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 gathering context information;   providing a user experience customizer to automatically produce user experience customization selections based on the context information;   collecting user activity feedback from a community of users; and   using the user activity feedback to adjust the user experience customizer to automatically produce user experience customization selections likely favored by a user based on a correlation of the user activity feedback with the context information.   
     
     
         2 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the context information is selected from the group: site identifier, buyer segmentation information, domain identifier, and keywords/queries. 
     
     
         3 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the context information is selected from dimensions in the group: site identifier, buyer segmentation information, domain identifier, and keywords/queries, and the method further includes progressively falling back to other sufficient and accurate dimensions in the group if a particular dimension does not provide sufficient or accurate information. 
     
     
         4 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the user experience customization selections are selected from the group: page type, modules, and configurations. 
     
     
         5 . The method as claimed in  claim 4  wherein the page type includes an all matching items page type. 
     
     
         6 . The method as claimed in  claim 4  wherein the configurations include a sort order selection. 
     
     
         7 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  including providing a perturbation engine to perturb the automatically produced user experience customization selections. 
     
     
         8 . The method as claimed in  claim 7  wherein the perturbation engine exposes a user to user experience customization selections to which the user would not have otherwise been exposed. 
     
     
         9 . The method as claimed in  claim 7  wherein the perturbation engine exposes a user to sub-optimal user experience customization selections. 
     
     
         10 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the user activity feedback includes clicking on items, bidding or buying activity, or explicitly provided user feedback. 
     
     
         11 . A user experience customizer comprising:
 an input unit to gather context information;   a predictive data unit to form correlations between the context data and a likely desirable structure and content provided in a corresponding user experience, the predictive data unit further to collect user activity feedback from a community of users and to adjust the user experience customizer based on the user activity feedback; and   a decision unit to automatically produce user experience customization selections based on a correlation of the user activity feedback with the context information.   
     
     
         12 . The user experience customizer as claimed in  claim 11  wherein the context information is selected from the group: site identifier, buyer segmentation information, domain identifier, and keywords/queries. 
     
     
         13 . The user experience customizer as claimed in  claim 11  wherein the context information is selected from dimensions in the group: site identifier, buyer segmentation information, domain identifier, and keywords/queries, and the user experience customizer being further configured to progressively fall back to other sufficient and accurate dimensions in the group if a particular dimension does not provide sufficient or accurate information. 
     
     
         14 . The user experience customizer as claimed in  claim 11  wherein the user experience customization selections are selected from the group: page type, modules, and configurations. 
     
     
         15 . The user experience customizer as claimed in  claim 14  wherein the page type includes an all matching items page type. 
     
     
         16 . The user experience customizer as claimed in  claim 14  wherein the configurations include a sort order selection. 
     
     
         17 . The user experience customizer as claimed in  claim 11  being further configured to provide a perturbation engine to perturb the automatically produced user experience customization selections. 
     
     
         18 . The user experience customizer as claimed in  claim 17  wherein the perturbation engine exposes a user to user experience customization selections to which the user would not have otherwise been exposed. 
     
     
         19 . The user experience customizer as claimed in  claim 17  wherein the perturbation engine exposes a user to suboptimal user experience customization selections. 
     
     
         20 . The user experience customizer as claimed in  claim 11  wherein the predictive data unit being further configured to collect user activity feedback including clicking on items, bidding or buying activity, or explicitly provided user feedback. 
     
     
         21 . An article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable storage medium having machine executable instructions embedded thereon, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
 gather context information;   provide a user experience customizer to automatically produce user experience customization selections based on the context information;   collect user activity feedback from a community of users; and   use the user activity feedback to adjust the user experience customizer to automatically produce user experience customization selections likely favored by a user based on a correlation of the user activity feedback with the context information.   
     
     
         22 . The article of manufacture as claimed in  claim 21  wherein the context information is selected from the group: site identifier, buyer segmentation information, domain identifier, and keywords/queries. 
     
     
         23 . The article of manufacture as claimed in  claim 21  wherein the context information is selected from dimensions in the group: site identifier, buyer segmentation information, domain identifier, and keywords/queries, and the article of manufacture being further configured to progressively fall back to other sufficient and accurate dimensions in the group if a particular dimension does not provide sufficient or accurate information. 
     
     
         24 . The article of manufacture as claimed in  claim 21  wherein the user experience customization selections are selected from the group: page type, modules, and configurations. 
     
     
         25 . The article of manufacture as claimed in  claim 24  wherein the page type includes an all matching items page type. 
     
     
         26 . The article of manufacture as claimed in  claim 24  wherein the configurations include a sort order selection.