I think what Paul says in one of his articles is key, there are different levels of personalisation. Anything that puts a barrier between
the user and the content is a bad idea (barring any necessary security requirements). However there are subtle things that could possibly be done based on a user to improve the experience. For example serving different images to different geographical locations
to target cultural preferences, offering translations based on browser language etc.
However as Kevin says, we have to be careful that we don’t assume too much about what our users want. Any kind of personalisation should
have the ability to reach all the content if so desired.
Andrew
Andrew Millar
Web Services Manager (CLS/CMDN) | Acting Head of Operations for CMDN Computing Services
College of Life Sciences | College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, University of Dundee
Tel: 01382 386217
From: Managing institutional Web services [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Kevin Mears
Sent: 17 March 2015 10:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Online Personalisation
On 16/03/2015 15:39, "Paul Boag" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
For what it is worth I have very little time for personalisation. In most cases it seems to be something management latch on to without really understanding why they want it and what business benefit it will provide. Often they don't even know what they mean by personalisation.
I’d broadly agree with this. What worries me about personalisation is that the organisation makes assumptions about what people might want and/or need to see which
are naturally based on what the organisation thinks. I’d favour an approach where you get asked to login when there’s a need – usually when you want to complete a task that needs to know who you are.
A nice illustration of what’s wrong with the personalisation mindset is the existence and use of a feature called ‘mandatory read’ in our staff intranet. The fact
that people think that is something useful or desirable suggests that User needs aren’t being put first.
--
Kevin Mears
Senior Web Developer
IT Services | Gwasanaethau TG
University of South Wales │Prifysgol De Cymru
Pontypridd
CF37 1DL
Tel │Ffôn: 01443 4 82446