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User profiling and virtual agents: a case study on e-commerce services

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Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica, Università degli Studi di Bari, Via E. Orabona, 4, I70126, Bari, Italy

    Giovanni Semeraro, Marco de Gemmis & Pasquale Lops

  2. Systems Analysis Department, Risoe National Laboratory, Frederiksborgvej 399, Build. 110, P.O. 49DK-4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    Verner Andersen

  3. National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Lersø Parkallé 105, 2100, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark

    Hans H. K. Andersen

Authors
  1. Giovanni Semeraro
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  2. Verner Andersen
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  3. Hans H. K. Andersen
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  4. Marco de Gemmis
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  5. Pasquale Lops
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marco de Gemmis.

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Semeraro, G., Andersen, V., Andersen, H.H.K. et al. User profiling and virtual agents: a case study on e-commerce services. Univ Access Inf Soc 7, 179–194 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-008-0116-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-008-0116-1

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