User modeling

About: User modeling is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 10701 publications have been published within this topic receiving 278012 citations.

KNOME: Modeling What the User Knows in UC

Abstract: KNOME is the user modeling component of UC, a natural language consultation system for the UNIX operating system. During the course of an interactive session with a user, KNOME infers the user’s level of expertise from the dialog and maintains a model of the user’s knowledge of the UNIX domain. KNOME’s model of the user makes use of a double-stereotype system in which one set of stereotypes represents the user’s expertise and another represents the difficulty level of the information. KNOME is used in UC to help disambiguate the user’s statements, avoid telling the user something that the user already knows, take advantage of prior user knowledge in presenting new information, and detect situations where the user lacks pertinent facts or where the user has a misconception. UC also models its own knowledge of UNIX with meta-knowledge (explicit facts about the limitations of the system’s own knowledge base), which is used to help in correcting user misconceptions.

Real-Time Game Adaptation for Optimizing Player Satisfaction

Abstract: A methodology for optimizing player satisfaction in games on the "playware" physical interactive platform is demonstrated in this paper. Previously constructed artificial neural network user models, reported in the literature, map individual playing characteristics to reported entertainment preferences for augmented-reality game players. An adaptive mechanism then adjusts controllable game parameters in real time in order to improve the entertainment value of the game for the player. The basic approach presented here applies gradient ascent to the user model to suggest the direction of parameter adjustment that leads toward games of higher entertainment value. A simple rule set exploits the derivative information to adjust specific game parameters to augment the entertainment value. Those adjustments take place frequently during the game with interadjustment intervals that maintain the user model's accuracy. Performance of the adaptation mechanism is evaluated using a game survey experiment. Results indicate the efficacy and robustness of the mechanism in adapting the game according to a user's individual playing features and enhancing the gameplay experience. The limitations and the use of the methodology as an effective adaptive mechanism for entertainment capture and augmentation are discussed.

Motivating participation in social computing applications: a user modeling perspective

Abstract: The explosive growth of Web-based social applications over the last 10 years has led people to engage in online communities for various purposes: to work, learn, play, share time and mementos with friends and family and engage in public action. Social Computing Applications (SCA) allow users to discuss various topics in online forums, share their thoughts in blogs, share photos, videos, bookmarks, and connect with friends through social networks. Yet, the design of successful social applications that attract and sustain active contribution by their users still remains more of an art than a science. My research over the last 10 years has been based on the hypothesis that it is possible to incorporate mechanisms and tools in the design of the social application that can motivate users to participate, and more generally, to change their behavior in a desirable way, which is beneficial for the community. Since different people are motivated by different things, it can be expected that personalizing the incentives and the way the rewards are presented to the individual, would be beneficial. Also since communities have different needs in different phases of their existence, it is necessary to model the changing needs of communities and adapt the incentive mechanisms accordingly, to attract the kind of contributions that are beneficial. Therefore User and Group (Community) Modeling is an important area in the design of incentive mechanisms. This paper presents an overview of different approaches to motivate users to participate. These approaches are based on various theories from the area of social psychology and behavioral economics and involve rewards mechanisms, reputation, open group user modeling, and social visualization. Future trends are outlined towards convergence with the areas of persuasive systems design, adaptive/personalized systems, and intelligent social learning environments.

Recommender Systems Research: A Connection-Centric Survey

Abstract: Recommender systems attempt to reduce information overload and retain customers by selecting a subset of items from a universal set based on user preferences. While research in recommender systems grew out of information retrieval and filtering, the topic has steadily advanced into a legitimate and challenging research area of its own. Recommender systems have traditionally been studied from a content-based filtering vs. collaborative design perspective. Recommendations, however, are not delivered within a vacuum, but rather cast within an informal community of users and social context. Therefore, ultimately all recommender systems make connections among people and thus should be surveyed from such a perspective. This viewpoint is under-emphasized in the recommender systems literature. We therefore take a connection-oriented perspective toward recommender systems research. We posit that recommendation has an inherently social element and is ultimately intended to connect people either directly as a result of explicit user modeling or indirectly through the discovery of relationships implicit in extant data. Thus, recommender systems are characterized by how they model users to bring people together: explicitly or implicitly. Finally, user modeling and the connection-centric viewpoint raise broadening and social issues—such as evaluation, targeting, and privacy and trust—which we also briefly address.

Increasing the Usability of Online Information for Older Users: A Case Study in Participatory Design

Abstract: This article describes one of the first documented participatory design (PD) efforts specifically aimed at older users. The goal of the project was to make an existing World Wide Web (WWW) site more user-friendly for older users, specifically in terms of display format issues. A PD team was assembled from a group of community-dwelling older adults and developers from a university research lab. After the developers established the trust and confidence of the participants and developed a conceptual user model (based on a survey and previous literature), the PD team evaluated the original design. Prototypes were iteratively developed and tested by the PD team to improve problems found in the original design. Specific design improvements and general design guidelines for older WWW users are discussed.