analysis of web logs to understand how users use the website
Published 2020-04-27T18:01:00.001Z by Physics Derivation Graph
Understanding how users use the website is important for improving the ease of use.
Suppose I have 3 website users (1, 2, 3), three webpages ("A", "B", and "C"), and each user visits three pages.
In this post I outline different data structures available for capturing user activity.
A matrix of pages and page visit order
page A
page B
page C
first page
1, 2
3
second page
3, 1
2
third page
1, 3
2
Here time moves from the top row towards the bottom row.
The steps taken by a single user are easy to trace.
A Markov model
A
B
C
A
0
B
0
C
0
A list per user
user 1: [A, B, A]
user 2: [A, C, B]
user 3: [C, B, A]
Same information as present in the matrix.
Here time moves left-to-right
The list length can vary per user.
List of tuples per user
As a modification to the list, each element could include the page name, the render time, and the dwell time:
user 1: [(A, 0.2, 55), (B, 0.3, 20), (A, 0.4, 126)]
user 2: [(A, 0.1, 65), (C, 0.2, 234), (B, 0.4, 23)]
user 3: [(C, 0.3, 15), (B, 0.1, 53), (A, 0.3, 45)]