Interactive product catalogue with user preference tracking

In the context of m-commerce, small screen size poses serious difficulty for users to browse effectively through a product catalogue, given the limited number of products that may be presented on-screen. Despite the availability of search engines, filters and recommender systems to aid users, these techniques focus on a narrow segment of product offering. The users are thus denied the opportunity to do a more expansive exploration of the products available. This paper describes a novel approach to overcome the constraints of small screen size. Through integration of a product catalogue with a recommender system, an adaptive system has been created that guides users through the process of product browsing. An original technique has been developed to cluster similar positive examples together to identify areas of interest of a user. The performance of this technique has been evaluated and the results proved to be promising

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY IN DISPLAYING INTERACTIVE CAR CATALOGUE SYSTEM ON MULTI TOUCH TABLETOP

This report covers on the implementation of tabletop tablet to display interactive catalogue system in the car industry. This project is a prove of concept indicating that the multi touch techniques are really useful in car industry as the user can direct manipulate sense of touch on viewing the car catalogue. This is proved when car purchasing activity or car road show take place. It focuses on the background on the catalogue whereby less interactive and low in usability discussed. The prime objective of this project is to investigate whether by having tabletop tablet will add and induce usability via user collaboration enabling more than one user to perform moving, resizing, zooming and rotating the car catalogue projected on the tabletop. On the literature section, it had been mention details of the architectural, design and application component. It also findings and readings on the multi gestural techniques, natural user interfaces (NUI) and the multi touch development platform. On the methodology part touches on the timeline and period how the project being carried out. Attached together the Gantt chart and flow chart on the event flow and task schedule. Discussion and result section talks about the development of the project and outcome of it. Description and explanation was included on how the multi-touch application being developed integrated with the entire component. Discussion regarding the system advantages, recommendation for future opportunity and weakness included in second last section. The recommendation described and explained taking into account of the system weakness and further improvement on the further coming years. Last section is the conclusion, discussing on the hope and key aspect achieved throughout the software development and progress

Marketing implications of traditional and ICT-mediated leisure activities

This study investigates the role of traditional and information and communication technology (ICT)-mediated leisure activities in consumer behaviour. An online survey of 558 members and 1319 ex-members of an Australian DVD rental company gathered preferences for nine traditional leisure activities and seven ICT-mediated leisure activities. The results of a cluster analysis showed four clusters with significant cluster differences across leisure activities and across demographics and consumer behaviours. For practitioners, the study illustrates how profiling customers on their leisure preferences can increase advertising effectiveness, reflect loyalty and help predict customer lifetime value. For academia, the results reveal how another consumer dimension, leisure activities, relates to demographic and behavioural characteristics

Capturing in-situ Feelings and Experiences of Public Transit Riders Using Smartphones

High-density urban environments are susceptible to ever-growing traffic congestion issues, which speaks to the importance of implementing and maintaining effective and sustainable transportation networks. While transit oriented developments offer the potential to help mitigate traffic congestion issues, transit networks ought to be safe and reliable for ideal transit-user communities. As such, it is imperative to capture meaningful data regarding transit experiences, and deduce how transit networks can be enhanced or modified to continually maintain ideal transit experiences. Historically speaking, it has been relatively tricky to measure how people feel whilst using public transportation, without leaning on recall memory to explain such phenomena. Recall memory can be vague and is often less detailed than recording in-situ observations of the transit-user community. This thesis explores the feasibility of using smartphones to capture meaningful in-situ data to leverage the benefits of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), while also addressing some limitations. Students travelled along Grand River Transit bus routes in Waterloo, Ontario from Wilfrid Laurier University to Conestoga Mall and back using alternate routes. The mobile survey captured qualitative and quantitative data from 145 students to explore variations in wellbeing, and the extent to which environmental variables can influence transit experiences. There were many findings to consider for future research, especially the overall role anxiety played on transit experiences. In addition, the results indicate that the methodology is appropriate for further research, and can be applied to a wide range of research topics. In particular, it is recommended that a similar study be applied to a much larger, and more representative sample of the transit-user community. Future considerations are discussed as key considerations to leverage the benefits of ESM research, and the promise it can bring towards the enhancement of transit experiences and the cohesion of transit-user communities

Engaging consumer through the storefront: evidences from integrating interactive technologies

Although previous studies identified the importance of storefront windows on consumer’s entry decision, there is still a lack of research on engaging consumers at the storefront through the integration with interactive technologies. The purpose of this study is to carry out an exploratory investigation into the consumers preference for a certain store based on the storefront windows (in terms of entry decision), with emphasis on the current most attractive interactive technologies. Thus, we examine the extent to which an exploratory sample of consumers is influenced by storefront interactive technologies. Emotional aspects emerge as the most influencing ones in the case of traditional storefronts, while both emotional and functional aspects emerge as the most influencing factors while considering the integration of interactive technologies. In particular, our results shed light on the way these elements can be managed for the design of future attractive storefront windows, by providing important insights for scholars and practitioners

Enhancing Children’s Experience with Recommendation Systems

Recommender Systems (RSs) offer a personalized support in exploring large amounts of information, assisting users in decision making about products matching their taste and preferences. Most of the research todate on recommender systems have focused on traditional users, i.e., adult individuals who are able to offer explicit feedback, write reviews, or purchase items themselves. However, children's patterns of attention and interaction are quite different from those of adults. This paper presents the first results of a research-in-progress that can be suited to bridge the barrier between children and a recom-mender system by providing a child-friendly interaction paradigm. Specifically, a web application is developed that employs real-time object recognition on movie thumbnails or DVD cover-photos in a real-time manner. The tangible object can be manipulated by the user and provide input to the system for the purpose of generating movie recommendations. We plan to extend this work to the scenario where the child could ask for a video content showing a related toy (e.g., a car, a plane, the doll of a character that she likes in a cartoon) and the system could generate the videos that matches these implicit preferences expressed by the chil

Engaging consumer through the storefront: evidences from integrating interactive technologies

Although previous studies identified the importance of storefront windows on consumer’s entry decision, there is still a lack of research on engaging consumers at the storefront through the integration with interactive technologies. The purpose of this study is to carry out an exploratory investigation into the consumers preference for a certain store based on the storefront windows (in terms of entry decision), with emphasis on the current most attractive interactive technologies. Thus, we examine the extent to which an exploratory sample of consumers is influenced by storefront interactive technologies. Emotional aspects emerge as the most influencing ones in the case of traditional storefronts, while both emotional and functional aspects emerge as the most influencing factors while considering the integration of interactive technologies. In particular, our results shed light on the way these elements can be managed for the design of future attractive storefront windows, by providing important insights for scholars and practitioners

Using Transaction Utility Approach for Retail Format Decision

Transaction Utility theory was propounded by Thaler to explain that the value derived by a customer from an exchange consists of two drivers: Acquisition Utilities and Transaction utilities. Acquisition utility represents the economic gain or loss from the transaction. Where as transaction utility is associated with purchase or (sale) and represents the pleasure (or displeasure) of the financial deal per se and is a function of the difference between the selling price and the reference price. Choice of a format has been studied from several dimensions including the cost and effort as well as the non-monetary values. However, the studies that present the complete picture and combine the aspects of the tangible as well as intangible values derived out of the shopping process are limited. Most of the studies, all of them from the developed economies, have focussed on the selection of a store. They represent a scenario where formats have stabilised. However, in Indian scenario formats have been found to be influencing the choice of store as well as orientation of the shoppers. Also, retailers are experimenting with alternate format with differing success rates. The author has also not found a study that has applied this theory. It is felt that the Transactional Utility Theory may provide a suitable approach for making format decisions.