Session Replay Extraction for Online Application Usability Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users often interact with online applications in unexpected ways, leading to dissatisfaction with certain features due to confusion with the user interface, making it challenging to capture user behavior in production environments.
Innovation Solution
A system generates session replays that capture event data representing user actions with an online application, allowing for the extraction and display of session replay data via a dashboard interface when a trigger event occurs, such as an online survey.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If user interactions are captured in production environment, then user behavior data can be analyzed to improve usability, but system complexity and data storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary event data from user interactions - specifically capturing event type, timestamp, and relevant event parameters - while excluding unnecessary data. This selective extraction approach enables accurate user behavior measurement without proportionally increasing system complexity and storage requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments user interaction data into discrete events with specific types and parameters. By dividing continuous user behavior into categorized event units, the system can efficiently store, retrieve, and analyze specific interaction patterns without managing the complexity of raw continuous data streams.
2Loss of information
If all user actions are stored for analysis, then complete user behavior data is available, but storage space and data processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only essential information from user interactions - event type, timestamp, and specific event parameters - discarding redundant data. This extraction principle maintains information completeness for usability analysis while significantly reducing the volume of stored data compared to capturing all raw interaction details.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial action by capturing only the subset of user interactions that are relevant to usability analysis, rather than storing all possible user actions. This selective approach ensures sufficient information for identifying interface confusion points without the overhead of comprehensive data storage.
3Duration of action of moving object
If session replay data is retained for long periods, then historical user behavior can be analyzed, but storage costs and data retrieval complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic data retention by automatically deleting session replay data after a predetermined time period. This periodic cleanup mechanism enables historical analysis within a reasonable timeframe while preventing unbounded storage growth and associated costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies the discarding principle by automatically removing old session replay data after it has served its analytical purpose. This systematic discarding of expired data maintains storage efficiency while preserving necessary historical information for usability improvement.
Data Source
AI summary
A system generates session replays that capture event data representing user actions performed with an online application. A session replay is configured to be associated with events of a trigger event type. A display of a user interface of the online application is displayed via a client device. The system stores event data describing user actions performed via the user interface of the online application in a replay data store. The replay data store retains event data representing user actions performed within a recent time interval. The system detects an occurrence of a trigger event of the trigger event type and extracts session replay data representing user actions performed with the online application via the client device within a threshold time prior to the trigger event. The session replay data is sent for display via a dashboard user interface.