Journal article
User profiling and virtual agents: A case study on e-commerce services
The main contribution of this work is the design of an application framework based on both conversational agents and user profiling technologies for the development of e-commerce services. User profiles are exploited by conversational agents to help customers in retrieving potentially interesting products from a catalogue.
Three techniques were used for collecting data for a usability test: eye-movement tracking, questionnaire, and recording the user-system dialogue. The main outcomes of the experimental sessions are: (1) the dialogue capabilities of the agent facilitate the interaction between the user and the e-commerce site; and, (2) user profiles improve the retrieval capabilities of the agent.
Finally, some limitations of the user profiling techniques adopted in the framework are discussed and a more sophisticated content-based profiling technique is proposed.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | Springer-Verlag |
Year: | 2008 |
Pages: | 179-194 |
Journal subtitle: | International Journal |
ISSN: | 16155297 and 16155289 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1007/s10209-008-0116-1 |