Chapter 1 Introduction to

Adaptive Web Systems

(AWS)
 Lesson objectives:

By the end of the session, students will be able to:

 Define what Adaptive Web System (AWS) is.

 Describe motivation for AWS

 Explain the structure of adaptive web systems

 Discuss user modeling, and personalization techniques

 Describe adaptation mechanisms and evaluations

 Be familiar with challenges of web personalization

 State areas of personalized applications

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Adaptive Web System: Definition
 Adaptive web systems are web-based applications that
dynamically tailor their content, presentation, and functionality
to meet the needs and preferences of individual users or user
groups.
 These systems leverage user modeling, personalization
techniques, and intelligent adaptation mechanisms to provide
personalized experiences and enhance user satisfaction.

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Adaptive Website: Definition
 An adaptive website is a website that builds a model of user
activity and modifies the information and/or presentation of
information to the user in order to better address the user's
needs.

 Modifies what? > content, and/or presentation

 Technique to build Adaptive websites includes:

 Recommender system

 Web mining

 ….

Source: Wiki
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Adaptive Systems: Definition
Adaptive systems are systems that adapt themselves to the
current, individual user.

Example:
 the system displays only a selected number of documents that
are deemed relevant to the user
 the system displays only selected, relevant parts of a document
 the system provides additional links to (possibly external)
 content only a selected number of relevant links (edges)
between documents (nodes) is displayed
 the system recommends certain items or products

Question: in which situations would such adaptations be useful?

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Terms: Definition
Adaptation:
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary)
adjustment to environmental conditions: such as
(a) adjustment of a sense organ to the intensity or quality of
stimulation (b) modification of an organism or its parts that
makes it more fit for existence under the conditions of its
environment : a heritable physical or behavioral trait that
serves a specific function and improves an organism's
fitness or survival

Adaptation:
(https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia)
noun. a modification of an organism or its parts that makes
it more fit for existence. 6
Adaptive Web System: Motivation
 The rapid growth of the internet and the abundance of available
information have led to the problem of information overload,
making it challenging for users to find relevant content.
 Adaptive web systems address this problem by automatically
adapting the web content and presentation based on user
characteristics, preferences, and context.
 By personalizing the web experience, adaptive web systems
can improve user engagement, efficiency, and overall
satisfaction.

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 The Web: is every thing!

“The World Wide Web (W3) is the

universe of network-accessible information,
an embodiment of human knowledge. It is
an initiative started at CERN, now with
many participants. It has a body of
software, and a set of protocols and
conventions. W3 uses hypertext and
multimedia techniques to make the web
easy for anyone to roam, browse, and
contribute to”. –Tim Berners-Lee (1993)

What are the terms like information, knowledge,

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participants, Software, protocols, hypertext, multimedia
techniques?
The Web: Evolution of Internet

Where is www​?
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 The Web: Evolution of web services

Discuss how business usage of web evolved?

 The Web: Percentage of Internet users

See how number of internet users are increasing. 1

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 The Web: ONE_SIZE_FITS_ALL

The idiom one-size-fits-all describes an item, situation, or policy

designed to accommodate a large amount of people. Something
that is one-size-fits-all will not be an exact fit and is not tailored 1
for every circumstance, but it will suffice. 2
Adaptive Web System: Motivation…

• Vast Amount of Web Information - Not all the documents are

relevant to the user
• Limited Expression of Information Needs - Users cannot
convey their information needs
• Incomplete Relevance of Documents - Users never find any
document 100% relevant
• Localization of Results - e.g. I don't want results of Addis
Ababa when I am in China.
• Disambiguation of Terms – e.g.I was looking for crane (the bird)
not crane (the machine).

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The Web: ONE_SIZE_FITS_ALL: Solutions

No more! One Size Fits all in E-commerce

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Adaptive Web System: Motivation…

Personalization
• React differently to different users
• System reacts in a way the users want it to
• Ultimately bring back the user to the system
Web Personalization
• Apply machine learning and data mining
• Build models of user behavior (called profiles)
• Predict user's needs and expectations
• Adaptively estimate better models

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 Adaptive Web System: Benefits

• The goal of personalization is to improve the relevancy of an

offering that results a personalized experience to customer.
 This increases customer loyalty to organization.

 This improves customer satisfaction

• Personalization is a key element in:

 social media and recommender systems.

• Personalization is affecting every sector of society

 i.e. work, leisure, health, education.....

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 Structure of Adaptive Web System

Structure of Adaptive Web System

1. Data About User: is the collection
of user data by the system.

2. User Model: User modeling is a

process which builds user model
using the users data.

3. Adaptation Effect: When the user

requests service, the user get
personalized web, which tailored or
adapted to the user's need.
Source:
https://www.intechopen.com/chapter
s/8958
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Structure of Adaptive Web System...

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 Data about User

Consider the following pieces of information

• Geographical Location
• Age, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc.
• Interests
• Previous reviews on products
• ......
Questions:
• How could these pieces of information help?
• How to collect these information?
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User Modeling
 is a fundamental component of adaptive web systems.
 involves capturing and representing user characteristics,
preferences, and behavior.
 User models can be built using explicit user input, implicit data
collection (e.g., browsing behavior, clickstream analysis), or a
combination of both.
 User models can include demographic information, user
interests, browsing history, feedback, and contextual
information (e.g., time of day, location).

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Personalized/Adaptive Web System Techniques:

 Adaptive web systems employ various personalization

techniques to tailor the web content and presentation to
individual users. Some common techniques include:
 Content-based filtering: Recommending items similar to
those the user has shown interest in previously.
 Collaborative filtering: Recommending items based on the
preferences of similar users or user groups.
 Rule-based systems: Applying predefined rules to adapt the
web content based on user characteristics or context.
 Machine learning: Utilizing algorithms to learn patterns from
user data and make personalized recommendations.

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Classification of Personalization Approaches

• Individual Vs Collaborative
• Reactive Vs Proactive

• User Vs Item Information

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Classification of Personalization Approaches

Individual Vs Collaborative
• Individual approach (e.g. Google Personalized Search)
• Use only individual user's data
• Generate user profile by analyzing
• User's browsing behavior
• User's active feedback on the system

• Advantage: Can be implemented on the client-side -

no privacy violation
• Disadvantage: Based only on past interactions – lack
of serendipity
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Classification of Personalization Approaches

Individual Vs Collaborative
• Collaborative approach (Amazon
recommendations): Find the neighborhood
of the active user
• React according to an assumption: If A is like B,
then B likes the same things as A likes
• Disadvantages: New item rating problem and New
user problem
• Advantage: Better than individual approach - Once
the two problems are solved.
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Classification of Personalization Approaches

Reactive Vs Proactive
• Reactive approach
=> Explicitly ask user for preferences
=> Either in the form of query or feedback
• Proactive approach
• Learn user preferences by user behavior
• No explicit preference demand from the user
• Behavior is extracted
=> Click-through rates
=> Navigational pattern 25
Classification of Personalization Approaches

User Vs Item Information

• User Information
=> Geographic location (from IP address)
=> Age, gender, marital status (explicit query)
=> Lifestyle, etc. (inference from past behavior)

• Item Information
=> Content of Topics – movie genre, etc.
=> Product/ domain ontology
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Evaluation of Adaptive Web Systems:
:
: The objective of evaluating adaptive web systems to assess
their effectiveness and user satisfaction.
 Evaluation methods may include user studies, usability testing,
feedback collection, and comparison with baseline systems.
 Key evaluation metrics include user satisfaction, task
completion rates, time spent on task, and personalized
recommendations' accuracy.

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Personalized/Adaptive Web Systems Applications…

E-commerce: Personalization is widely used in e-commerce

platforms to recommend products based on user preferences,
browsing history, and purchase patterns. It helps users discover
relevant products, increases engagement, and drives sales.
Content Streaming: Platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube
utilize personalization to recommend movies, TV shows, music,
and videos based on user viewing history, ratings, and
preferences. This improves user satisfaction and encourages
content discovery.

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Personalized/Adaptive Web Systems Applications…

News and Media: Personalization is employed in news and media

platforms to deliver customized news articles, headlines, and
content based on user interests, location, and browsing behavior.
It helps users stay informed about topics they care about.

Health and Fitness: Personalization is applied in health and

fitness apps to provide customized workout plans, diet
recommendations, and fitness goals based on individual user
profiles, health data, and preferences. It helps users achieve their
specific health and fitness objectives.

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Personalized/Adaptive Web Systems Applications…

Education and E-Learning: Personalization is utilized in e-

learning platforms to deliver personalized learning experiences. It
adapts content, courses, and learning paths based on a user's
skill level, learning style, and interests. It enhances engagement
and promotes effective learning.

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Personalized/Adaptive Web Systems Applications…

Financial Services: Personalization is employed in banking and

financial services to deliver customized offers, product
recommendations, and financial advice based on user's transaction
history, spending patterns, and financial goals. It helps users make
informed financial decisions.

Social Networking: Social media platforms use personalization to

curate users' news feeds, suggesting relevant posts, connections,
and content based on their social network, interests, and online
behavior. It enhances user engagement and encourages social
interactions.

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Challenges of Personalized/Adaptive Web Systems

 Lack of customer privacy protection

 Lack of a personalization strategy

 Technology that is siloed and not API-first
 Ineffective use of first-party data
 …..
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Source:https://hygraph.com/blog/personalization-modern-web-applications
 Activity -1

 Compare and contrast concepts in one page:

 Personalization, Adaptation &Customization

 Adaptive Web based vs. Responsive Web Design vs. Fluid

Web Design vs Intelligent Web vs PWA

 Review the paper entitled in one page:
 “WebAdaptor: Designing Adaptive Web Sites Using Data
Mining Techniques.pdf” Your review is expected to cover the
problem, the methods, data used, the result, findings and future
direction.
 Note that submission date is 12 November 2023.

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END of CHAPTER 1