Why bother modelling end-user in digital services? Lessons learned in MMEA

Janne Saarela / Profium Oy

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Agenda

1. Vision

2. Modelling end users

3. Lessons learned

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Vision• Let the computers do more useful things for us• Why do we users have to be so very active in using computers?

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Vision (cont’d)• Human users understand each others’ context via common history and

by exchanging information. This interaction typically starts with the question: “Where are you?” (missoot? in Finnish)

@ Punch & Judy, and u?

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Vision (cont’d)• Profium’s interest in developing contextual services has been in

– Formalising user context so that computers (software) can act upon it.– Ultimately relieving user to other tasks than looking for information

that is relevant for him/her.

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Aspects to formalising user context

• Spatial information as in speed and location

• Temporal information as in time of day

• Social situation as in who are with you right now

• Environmental information such as wind, temperature, humidity, water level

• Agenda information such as now in a business meeting, upcoming flight or tennis lesson

• User identity

• Complex aspect which could extend to health or physical possessions or mental goals

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A simple use case from MMEA

”15 knot wind in the Baltic sea is ideal for a sail boat but is not for a small motor boat” ”Calm wind in the Baltic sea is not ideal for a sail boat but is for a small motor boat”

• Important consideration: a context-aware service can make positive and/or negativeinformation available for users.

• Important assumption: the above service needs to know what type of a boat the user has and where the boat is located.

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Modeling users• The user domain can be modelled to the finest detail if need be

but the downside is the effort required by the user to populate the model.

• User model consists of facts which are true in the domain at a given time.

• Two approaches to modeling the user context (not mutually exclusive):

• Explicit where the user controls the model with a dedicated user interface (e.g. to set the type of his/her boat and its location)

• Implicit where the user model is constructed from user behavior or mobile phone location or some other source than user’s explicit modeling effort

• Once the context is established, a contextual service can start its work...

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Context-aware service examples

Google Now You’re supposed to fly out of SFO in 2 hours and the service notifies that ”given the

traffic for driving to SFO with yourown car, you should hit the road in 10minutes from where you are right now”.

Nice implicit profile construction from calendarand current location.

Profium “media radar” application You’re cycling in Espoo and when you get closer than

2 kilometers from Tapiola library, you will receive a notification about a French movie available for lending which you can go pick up on your way home.

Combination of an explicit semantic interest profile and implicit profile that is your current location in Espoo.

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Profium semantic geofencingProfium Sense has

received information about a new film

”Les intouchables” which is available at Tapiola library

@ GPS coordinates

When user is closer than 2 kms from recommended

content, Profium Sense sends the user a

notification (APN, email or SMS) indicating

”Les intouchables” is available for pick-up

at Tapiola library

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Crop guard (viljavahti)

Profium developed a contextual mobile app for farmers. The farmers can make timely decisions whether to use pesticides against pests or diseases that influence the type of crop they grow at a given location in Finland.

Crop guard notifies the farmers when information relevant for them has become available.

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Lessons learned in MMEA

• Proactive service model can be used for various business domains such as agriculture

• Business model of such a service can be based on

• Value-added feature of an existing service (differentiate offering)• Subscription service fee• Indirect business benefit for 3rd party companies such as insurance

companies who would look at reductions in claims

• Come and see us at the booth or contact me at janne.saarela@profium.com for more information on how to implement your first contextual services.