Personalization: Is It Effective on New and Repeat Users?

This work studies personalization from the perspective of human computer interaction. The objectives are to examine the effects of various personalization strategies on users’ information processing and decision-making. We commence by reviewing the literature on personalization in the five research domains defined by Banker and Kauffman (2004), and then highlight the debates regarding the effectiveness of personalization in influencing users’ decision-making. To bridge the gap between the proliferation of personalization technologies and the uncertainty of their effectiveness, this work addresses the following research question: What are the effects of different personalization strategies on users’ information processing? We examine two common personalization strategies: preference matching and set size of personalized content. We explore how these strategies affect users’ decision-making. An information processing model rooted in the Heuristic-Systematic Model is developed. We formulate 10 hypotheses on the relationship between personalization strategies and users’ information processing. Data collected from two online field studies are used to assess the validity of the proposed hypotheses. The results of the studies indicate that personalization can capture users’ attention, and, personalization is also associated with an increase in users’ exploration of other content. This effect becomes less salient when the amount of non-personalized content increases.