Adaptive Web Sites: An Introduction

Adaptive Web Sites: An Introduction

1. Introduction
2. What is an adaptive Web site?
3. How do these Web sites adapt to me? (part one)
4. How do these Web sites adapt to me? (part two)
5. What are the pitfalls to watch out for?
6. How can adaptive Web sites be evaluated?
7. What is next for adaptive Web sites?
8. References

Designing Effective Online Press Rooms

TradeOff Cube: A Graphic User Interface Device

Designing for Overseas Chinese Readers

by Carolyn Wei
Page 1 of 8

PDF and printer-friendly versions of this article are available.

next-->

Introduction

Figure 1: Amazon.com's personalized home page for the author [3].

Broadly marketed Web sites face an increasingly diverse and demanding audience. Each visitor may be searching for something different, and each may have unique needs or concerns. Traditional, "static" Web sites can try to serve these diverse users by aiming at generalized types of user. However, generalizing the audience may cause an information designer to overlook users who do not quite fit in a category. A more effective way to reach diverse audiences might be adaptive Web sites that customize content and interface to suit each individual. This paper will discuss basic concepts behind adaptive Web sites using Amazon.com, the Internet bookseller, as an example. Figure 1 shows part of Amazon.com's personalized home page for the author.

next-->

Copyright © 2001 by Carolyn Wei. All rights reserved.