WO2016151582A1

WO2016151582A1 - Programmatic personalization of navigation menus in web sites and applications

Info

Publication number: WO2016151582A1
Application number: PCT/IL2016/050310
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yaron Chen
Original assignee: Yaron Chen
Priority date: 2015-03-26
Filing date: 2016-03-23
Publication date: 2016-09-29

Abstract

A method of programmatically personalizing menu areas on a content website or application, comprising: identifying a user visiting said content website or application; receiving user personalization preferences; programmatically personalizing menu items in said website or application according to said preferences; and displaying said programmatically personalized menu items.

Description

PROGRAMMATIC PERSONALIZATION OF NAVIGATION MENUS IN WEB

SITES AND APPLICATIONS

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention is in the field of programmatic personalization solution to web-pages and applications.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims priority from and is related to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial Number 62138488, filed 03/26/2015, this U.S. Provisional Patent Application incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.

BACKGROUND

A content website is a platform design to serve as a knowledge base for surfers. It usually contains many content items that are connected to a number of main topics, some general and others very specific to the website owner.

Many content websites have adopted the practice of providing personalized content to their visitors. This may be done by grouping website visitors into essentially homogeneous audiences based on a plurality of accessible parameters such as Geo-location, onsite behavior, system information, weather forecast, social networks data, CRM data, and the flexibility of the website owners to define their own custom targeting parameters.

Once visitors to the website have been categorized, website owners may create or target personalized content to the members of each audience. Fig. 1 is shows an exemplary Yahoo website home page 100. The home page is generally divided into menu areas 1 10 leading to menu area pages and a content area 130. The menu areas 1 10 are part of the original page design.

Websites providing personalized content manipulate the content area 130 to provide content fitting the visitor's category.

Similarly, menu area pages may also be divided into sub-menu areas, leading to sub-menu area pages, title space and a content area. The sub-menu areas may be a repetition of the menu areas in the home page, or menu areas leading to sub-pages of the current menu area page. Fig. 2 shows the exemplary Yahoo website home page 100 of Fig. 1 with additional sub-menus 140.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 shows an exemplary prior-art Yahoo website home page; Fig. 2 shows the exemplary page of Fig. 1 with additional sub-menus;

Fig. 3 shows the exemplary page of Fig. 1 personalized for a user;

Fig. 4 shows the page of Fig. 3 with an additional personalized sub-menu;

Fig. 5 shows the exemplary page of Fig. 1 personalized for another user, comprising an update indication; Fig. 6 shows the exemplary page of Fig. 1 personalized for yet another user;

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram showing the components of the system for implementing the present invention; and

Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing the system of the present invention in operation. SUMMARY

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of programatically personalizing menu areas on a content website or application, comprising: identifying a user visiting said content website or application; receiving user personalization preferences; personalizing menu items in said website or application according to said preferences; and displaying said personalized menu items.

Identifying a user may comprise identifying by the user's IP address.

The user personalization preferences may comprise preferred usage of the website or application by the user.

The user personalization preferences may comprise preferred usage of a plurality of websites or applications by the user.

The user personalization preferences may comprise usage of social networks by the user. The user personalization preferences may comprise user's fields of interest.

The user personalization preferences may comprise user's active hours.

The user personalization preferences may comprise fields of interest of similar users.

Programmatically personalizing menu items may comprise changing the order of menu items.

Programmatically personalizing menu items may comprise replacing menu items.

Replacing menu items may comprise defining at least one menu item as irreplaceable. The method may further comprise incorporating real time indications in the menu.

The method may further comprise enabling selective blocking and opening of menu items to said user according to predefined criteria. The method may further comprise automatically changing said menu according to at least one external parameter.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for of programmatically personalizing menu areas on a content website or application, comprising: a system server storing a user

personalization database; a plurality of website servers or applications each having installed a menu personalization module; and a software module configured to be installed in said plurality of websites or applications, said software module configured to communicate with said system server and to programmatically personalize menus of said websites or applications according to said user personalization data stored in said database.

The user personalization data may comprise preferred usage of the website or application by the user.

The user personalization data may comprise preferred usage of a plurality of websites or applications by the user. The user personalization data may comprise usage of social networks by the user.

The user personalization data may comprise user's fields of interest.

The user personalization data may comprise user's active hours.

The user personalization data may comprise fields of interest of similar users. The programmatically personalized menu items may comprise menu items in a changed order. The programmatically personalized menu items may comprise replaced menu items.

The system may further comprise at least one menu item defined as irreplaceable. The system may further comprise real time indications incorporated in the menu.

The system may firther comprise selectively blocked and open of menu items to said user according to predefined criteria.

The system may further comprise automatically changed menu according to at least one external parameter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The present invention provides a programmatic personalization solution to web-page and application areas which to-date have not been personalized. Fig. 3 shows a programmatically personalized Yahoo website home page for user "Ari" - a 21 years old male, showing a new content and order of the menu items in area 310, including a menu item "Music" that was previously under the "More" menu.

The solution of the present invention is implemented in a software module configured to be installed in a plurality of websites, regardless of the menu area's design, and provide these website surfers a personalized surfing experience beyond the currently existing solutions.

Similarly, the solution of the present invention is implemented in a SDK (software development kit) module configured to be installed in a plurality of applications, regardless of the menu area's design, and provide these application users a personalized experience beyond the currently existing solutions.

Fig. 4 shows the page of Fig. 3 with an additional personalized sub-menu of "Sports" 400, featuring the user's favorite teams. Fig. 5 shows the exemplary page of Fig. 1 programmatically personalized for another user "Shawn" - 35 years old male, comprising an update indication 500 on the sports channel;

Fig. 6 shows the exemplary page of Fig. 1 programmatically personalized for another user "Jenny" - 21 years old female, comprising an update indication 500 on the sports channel;

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram showing the components of the system for implementing the present invention.

The system 600 comprises a system server 610, which may be central or distributed, storing a user tracking database 620, a plurality of website servers (or applications) 630 each having installed the programmatic menu

personalization module of the present invention (or a SDK) 635 and a plurality of users 640 surfing the Internet using a browser 450 (or using an application).

Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing the system of the present invention in operation.

In step 710 a content website (or application) 730 joins the programmatic menu personalization solution of the present invention by, for example, registering in the system server 610, downloading therefrom the menu personalization module (or SDK) 635 installation package and installing the module 635.

In an initialization process the module 635 analyzes the HTML home page of the website (or the opening screen of the application) and "learns" the geometry of the various menu areas. In step 720 a user enters the content website on his browser (or launches the application). Before displaying the home page (or the openng screen), control is given to the programmatic menu personalization module 635, which identifies the user (step 730), e.g. by his IP address. User personalization information is derived from a number of sources, including:

1 . By ongoing analysis of the user's behavior, e.g. cookies in the website, indicating preferred usage of the website by the user, e.g. mostly selected menu items, order of menu-items selection, etc.

2. By ongoing analysis of the user's behavior, e.g. cookies in a plurality of websites or applications, as reported to the system server and stored in the user's database entry.

3. By the system server tracking and analyzing user's surfing or

application usage habits, social networks usage, fields of interest, active hours and more.

4. By the system server using crowd-sourcing to define fields of interest of similar users.

The various items are integrated into a dynamic user profile.

In step 740 the module 635 communicates the user ID to the system server 610, where the server software looks for the user entry in its tracking database 620 and communicates the current user profile to the module 635.

In step 750 the module 635 uses the user profile to programmatically personalize the menu area and in step 760 the personalized home page is displayed in the user's browser. The user profiles in the server database may be used for additional purposes such as targeted advertising, offering domain-focused newsletters,

recommending personally suited applications and more. The programmatic personalization module 635 may include additional features such as, for example:

- Real time indications 500 incorporated in the menu for indicating, for example, new relevant content in other channels, a news flash, etc. The indications may be implemented as colored light bulbs and their appearance may be controlled by the user.

- Control of the website owner over a number of menu areas that will always appear, regardless of the user's preferences.

- The user may characterize the appearance of his programmatically personalized menus in any website, e.g. "always display the Sports menu area first".

- External categories (taken from other websites) may be included in the programmatically personalized menu, either automatically or manually.

- A user management interface providing information to the user

regarding awards to which he is entitled based on visits to the website, usage, time spent etc.

- An administrator management interface for enabling selective blocking /opening of channels (menu areas) to users according to various criteria such as registration, fee payment, performing a certain operation, accumulating a predefined number of "loyal surfer" points etc.

- Administrator option to launch a new channel, such as a channel

relating to current events (e.g. elections).

- Automatic location identification to enable recommendation to translate the menu to a local language.

- Personalization of the menu appearance (e.g. sportive, elegant,

downsized, colorful etc.)

- Automatic menu changes according to various parameters such as season, hour, day, holidays, special events and more (e.g. on days when the stock exchange is not active the relevant indices will not appear). - Automatic "alerts" (e.g. blinking menu area) to draw a user's attention when detecting no operation for a predefined length of time.

- Easy transition between standard and dynamic menu.

- Manipulating the menu area by, for example: shrinking the menu into the website logo, momentarily opening the shrunken menu by moving the mouse over the logo, fully opening the menu by double clicking the website logo, etc.

Claims

1 . A method of programmatically personalizing menu areas on a content website or application, comprising: identifying a user visiting said content website or application; receiving user personalization preferences; programmatically personalizing menu items in said website or application according to said preferences; and displaying said programmatically personalized menu items.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said identifying a user comprises

identifying by the user's IP address.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said user personalization preferences comprise preferred usage of the website or application by the user.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said user personalization preferences comprise preferred usage of a plurality of websites or applications by the user.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said user personalization preferences comprise usage of social networks by the user.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said user personalization preferences comprise user's fields of interest.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said user personalization preferences comprise user's active hours.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said user personalization preferences comprise fields of interest of similar users.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said programmatically personalizing menu items comprises changing the order of menu items.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said programmatically personalizing menu items comprises replacing menu items.

1 1 . The method of claim 10, wherein said replacing menu items comprises defining at least one menu item as irreplaceable.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising incorporating real time indications in the menu.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising enabling selective blocking and opening of menu items to said user according to predefined criteria.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising automatically changing said menu according to at least one external parameter.

15. A system for of programmatically personalizing menu areas on a

content website or application, comprising: a system server storing a user personalization database; a plurality of website servers or applications each having installed a programmatically menu personalization module; and a software module configured to be installed in said plurality of websites or applications, said software module configured to communicate with said system server and to programmatically personalize menus of said websites or applications according to said user personalization data stored in said database.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said user personalization data

comprise preferred usage of the website or application by the user.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein said user personalization data

comprise preferred usage of a plurality of websites or applications by the user.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein said user personalization data

comprise usage of social networks by the user.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein said user personalization data

comprise user's fields of interest.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein said user personalization data

comprise user's active hours.

21 . The system of claim 15, wherein said user personalization data

comprise fields of interest of similar users.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein said programmatically personalized menu items comprise menu items in a changed order.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein said programmatically personalized menu items comprise replaced menu items.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising at least one menu item defined as irreplaceable.

25. The system of claim 15, further comprising real time indications

incorporated in the menu.

26. The system of claim 15, further comprising selectively blocked and open of menu items to said user according to predefined criteria.

27. The system of claim 15, further comprising automatically changed menu according to at least one external parameter.