Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Making Magic Happen: Predicting User Behavior in AJAX applications

Jonathan Boutelle

Uzanto Consulting

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Who am I?

• www.uzanto.com

• www.jonathanboutelle.com

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Http request

Initial Html

User action

Html (with data embedded)

User action

Html (with data embedded)

…

HTML Server Dbase

Vanilla Web Application (circa 2000)

User action requiring data

User action requiring data

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Http request for app

App (ActionScript & Flash) downloads

Data

UIClient

Manager Server Dbase

Rich Internet Application (circa 2003)

User action requiring data

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Http request for app

App (ActionScript & Flash) downloads

User action requiring data

Optionally preload data

UIClient

Manager Server Dbase

Rich Internet Application (circa 2004)

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Http request for app

User action requiring data

ALWAYS preload data

UIClient

Manager Server Dbase

AJAX Application (circa 2005)

App (Javascript & HTML) downloads

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Building a model of user behavior

• Build naïve model

• Validate and refine model

• Be metric driven Responsiveness: % user data requests that were met

with pre-fetched data Efficiency: the % of pre-fetched data that ended up

being used

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Download if value > cost

• Value = value of reduced latency * odds the data will be needed

• Cost = cost of download * odds the data won’t be needed

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit

Value vs. Cost

Uzanto Consulting AJAX Summit