Client-Side User Experience Measurement via Active Portion Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing performance measurement techniques primarily focus on server-side performance and fail to accurately measure user-perceived client-side performance, which is crucial for improving website experience, as they do not account for dynamic user interactions and the visibility of web page elements.
Innovation Solution
Collecting client-side performance data for dynamic 'active portions' of network documents, using browser scripts or plugins to measure latency and other metrics of visible digital assets, ensuring that performance optimization targets user-experienced issues rather than static or invisible elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If server-side performance measurement techniques are used, then server performance can be monitored, but user-perceived client-side performance cannot be accurately measured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a browser extension as an intermediary component that bridges the gap between server-side measurement capabilities and client-side performance tracking. This extension collects performance data directly from the user's browser environment, including network requests, resource loading, and rendering metrics, then transmits this data to the server for analysis. This intermediary approach enables accurate client-side performance measurement while maintaining centralized server-side monitoring infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic performance tracking that adapts to user interactions in real-time. The measurement system continuously monitors performance metrics as users navigate and interact with the website, adjusting the scope and focus of measurements based on current user activity. This dynamic approach captures the evolving user experience as pages load, elements render, and interactions occur, rather than relying on static pre-defined measurement points.
2Loss of time
If static performance measurement is implemented, then initial page load time can be measured, but dynamic user interaction performance cannot be tracked
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous performance monitoring that operates throughout the entire user session, not just during initial page load. The browser extension continuously collects performance data as users interact with the website, tracking metrics across multiple page loads, navigation events, and user actions. This continuous measurement approach ensures that performance degradation over time or under different user interaction patterns is captured and can be analyzed.
3Measurement precision
If comprehensive performance data is collected, then accurate user experience metrics can be obtained, but data processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates only the most relevant performance metrics from the comprehensive data collected by the browser extension. Rather than attempting to process all possible performance data points, the system identifies and extracts key metrics such as first contentful paint, largest contentful paint, cumulative layout shift, and interaction-to-completion time. This extraction approach maintains measurement precision for critical user experience indicators while reducing the complexity of data processing and analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are provided for measuring user-perceived client-side performance of network documents. Client-side performance data associated with a network document can be collected during the loading of the network document by a web browser of a client device, for example, by a browser-executable script. The collected performance data may include latency information respectively associated with a plurality of digital assets configured to be rendered by the network document. A subset of the collected performance data can be selectively provided. The selectively provided performance data may be associated with a subset of the plurality of digital assets that are configured to be rendered within an active portion of the network document. The active portion of the network document may indicate a current area of interest for a user of the client device such as a viewport. The selectively provided performance data may be used to improve user-perceived performance at the client device.