User Loyalty Blog
This Blog is about my research on "User loyalty and dynamically personalised websites" in which I analyzed and studied user behaviour on a dynamically personalised website.Abstract
Most research in the field of personalisation deals with the technical or theoretical aspects of personalisation. This research focussed on the practical implementation and the integration of a personalisation system in a website. This research describes the creation of a website with dynamic personalisation features, utilising an iterative design process. The focus of this research is on measuring the impact of dynamically personalised websites on user loyalty. Because personalisation has the biggest impact if it addresses higher levels of user needs, it was crucial to get an understanding of which essential aspects of user experience address these levels. For that reason the concept that was tested in a first version of the website changed during the process as a reaction to user feedback that was gathered through feedback from forums, polls and visitor statistics. On the second version of the website, data on the site users browsing behaviour was gathered and used to dynamically personalise the website during two months in which a field study was conducted. Two surveys, one during and one at the end of the field study, delivered data about the users perception of the site and were compared with the users browsing behaviour. This research finds a positive relation between dynamic personalisation and user loyalty to a website. Furthermore, it identifies that the use of appropriate design that suits the topic, focus on the topic, delivery of content and the creation of a positive atmosphere are essential aspects for a valuable user experience that addresses the higher levels of user needs.Conclusion
August 2nd, 2006
During the two cycles of the iterative design process the use of appropriate design that suits the topic, focus on the topic, delivery of content and the creation of a positive atmosphere were identified as the most essential aspects for a valuable user experience. The prerequisite for these aspects to become the most essential was that the lower levels of user needs, usability and availability, were fulfilled.
Four pages had personalisation features implemented, the start page, the news page, the idea-rating page and the start page of the tutorial. While the tutorial did not have enough visitors to be of interest in this study, the personalisation system of the idea-rating page lacked content and therefore could not work as planned. The findings show that the news page and the start page were better perceived by users that had the personalisation features enabled (B+users). The accuracy and coverage of the news page personalisation system could be confirmed. B+users perceived the website as more trustworthy, were more interested in new features of the site and were more likely to recommend the site. This indication of increased user loyalty was confirmed by data that showed that B+users were visiting the site more frequently. Therefore, the hypothesis, that it is possible by utilising dynamic personalisation to increase user loyalty to a site, is confirmed.