GB2528020A

GB2528020A - Aggregated user feedback system

Info

Publication number: GB2528020A
Application number: GB1218288.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Richard George Hoptroff
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2012-10-11
Filing date: 2012-10-11
Publication date: 2016-01-13
Also published as: GB201218288D0

Abstract

A method and system for providing feedback to voting users. User devices 302, 303, 304 each have selectable buttons 311, 312, 313. When buttons 311, 312, 313 are selected by users 308, 309, 310 voting signals are sent to a server 301. The server aggregates the votes, and sends a result back to the user devices. The user devices display the result by altering the appearance of at least one voting button, e.g. by changing the size or otherwise altering the button. Preferably the most selected button 312, 313, 314 is highlighted to indicate the result. The appearance of each button may be changed to reflect the proportion of users selecting each button (see figure 4). The method and system is preferably implemented via web browsers 305, 306, 307.

Description

AGGREGATED USER FEEDBACK SYSTEM

This invention relates to a method for providing aggregating input from multiple users and feeding the aggregate response back to all users.

Aggregation systems such as used in electronic voting typically work by sending selections from verified users to a central computer where the selections are aggregated in order to generate statistics about the selections of the user base as a whole. What happens to the aggregated statistics is then quite varied, according to the application.

In many cases that may be considered the state of the art, such as X-Factor styles of television popularity contest and online democratic elections, the result is announced quite separately alter the voting window has closed.

In other cases that may be considered the state of the art, systems provide feedback using the same system as used to collect user selections. A well-known example is Facebook, which allows users to "Like" other users' comments. The voting window is permanently open and the current tally is displayed on the web page alongside the comment.

A limitation of these states of the art is the difficulty of associating the selection with the aggregated result. In particular, when multiple choices are available, a visual association needs to be made between the selections and the presentation of the actual result. Perhaps this is not so difficult in the Facebook example, where the "Like" talk can appear next to the comment. However, if there are more voting options, it becomes increasingly complex.

For example in figure 1, users are presented with a web page 101 that contains voting buttons 102 for six sentiments: Like, Dislike, Agree, Disagree, Believe and Doubt. A bar chart 103 above shows the current voting tally. The physical separation of the bars from the buttons requires the voter to make a visual association between each selection control and its corresponding aggregation result indication.

The current invention removes the need to develop a visual association by combining the selection control and the resulting indication in the same element. With reference to figure 2, it is comprised of the following steps: 1. Each user is presented with identical voting machines 202, 203 with multiple selection controls 204, 205. Each user selects one control and activates it.

2. The information about which control has been selected by each individual user is sent to a central computer 201. Computer 201 calculates an aggregate statistic such as the total number of users that made each selection.

3. The aggregate statistic is sent back to all voting machines 202, 203, where the it is used to change the shape or visual appearance of selection controls 204, 205 on all voting machines 202, 203 identically.

Figure 3 presents an embodiment of the invention comprised of a web server 301 that serves up identical web pages to multiple web browsers 302, 303, 304. On each web page 305, 306, 307, a set of selection buttons is presented to its user. Users 308, 309, 310 individually choose one of the buttons 311, 312, 313 and activates it. Unlike a normal user interface, the activated buttons 311, 312, 313 do not change their appearance to indicate they were pressed. Instead, the selections made by users are reported to web server 301.

Web server 301 receives reports from all web browsers 302, 303, 304 for which buttons were selected and counts the total number of selections made by all users for each button.

It then transmits back to all browsers 302, 303, 304, the total number of selections. This is a broadcast transmission to all browsers, whether the user selected a button or not. Each web browser then identically changes the appearance of its buttons according to the total number of votes reported to it by web server 301.

The change in appearance might, for example, reflect the most pressed button 312, 313, 314. In this case, the selection 311 made by some users 308 is not the button that changes appearance 314. Alternately, as shown in figure 4, the buttons 402 displayed by web page 401 might change their appearance to reflect the proportion of users who selected that button.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method for tallying a vote from a voting device, the voting device including a first button associated with a first voting option, the method comprising the steps of: sending a first voting signal from a first voting device to a server, the first voting signal indicating that the first voting option has been selected; the server, upon receiving the first signal, produces a cumulative count of the first voting signal, and sends a first count signal to the first voting device, the first count signal including an indication of the cumulative count of the first voting signal; and the first voting device, upon receiving the first count signal, configures the appearance of the first button based on the cumulative count of the first voting signal.
2. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the voting device includes a second button associated with a second voting option, further comprising the steps of: sending a second voting signal from the first voting device to the server, the second voting signal indicating that the second voting option has been selected; the server, upon receiving the second voting signal, produces a cumulative count of the second voting signal, and sends a second count signal to the first voting device, the second count signal including an indication of the cumulative count of the second voting signal; and the first voting device, upon receiving the second count signal, configures the appearance of the second button based on the cumulative count of the second voting signal.
3. A method as claimed in either Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the first voting device changes the size of the first voting button based on the cumulative count of the first voting signal.
4. A method as claimed in either Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the first voting device highlights the first voting button based on the cumulative count of the first voting signal.
5. A method as claimed in either Claim 2 or Claim 3, wherein the first voting device changes the size of the second voting button based on the cumulative count of the second voting signal.
6. A method as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the first voting device highlights the second voting button based on the cumulative count of the second voting signal.
7. A method as claimed in either Claim 1, for tallying votes from several voting devices, wherein the server sends the first count signal to several voting devices, the first count signal including an indication of the cumulative count of the first voting signal, and the several voting devices configure the appearance of the first button based on the cumulative count of the first voting signal.
8. A method as claimed in Claim 7, for tallying votes from several voting devices, wherein the server receives a second voting signal, indicating that a second voting option has been selected, produces a second cumulative count of the second voting signal, and sends a second count signal to the several voting devices, the second count signal including an indication of the cumulative count of the second voting signal, and the several voting devices configure the appearance of the second button based on the cumulative count of the second voting signal.
9. A method as claimed in Claim 7 or Claim 8, wherein the several voting devices change the size of the first voting button based on the cumulative count of the first voting signal.
10. A method as claimed in either Claim 7 or Claim 8, wherein the several voting devices highlight the first voting button based on the cumulative count of the first voting signal.
11. A method as claimed in Claim 8 or Claim 9, wherein the several voting devices change the size of the second voting button based on the cumulative count of the second voting signal.
12. A method as claimed in Claim 8, wherein the several voting devices highlight the first voting button based on the cumulative count of the first voting signal.
13. A server for tallying a vote from a first voting device, the first voting device including a first button associated with a first voting option, the server comprising a communication interface for receiving a first input signal from the first voting device, the first input signal indicating that the first voting option has been selected; and a processor, configured for producing a cumulative count of the first input signal and for sending a first output signal to the first voting device via the communication interface, the first output signal including an indication of the cumulative count of the first input signal such that the first voting device configures the appearance of the first button based on the cumulative count of the first input signal.
14. A server as claimed in Claim 13, wherein the first voting device includes a second button associated with a second voting option, the communication interface is for receiving a second input signal from the first voting device, the second input signal indicating that the second voting option has been selected, and the processor is configured for producing a cumulative count of the second input signal and for sending a second output signal to the first voting device via the communication interface, the second output signal including an indication of the cumulative count of the second input signal such that the first voting device configures the appearance of the second voting button based on the cumulative count of the second input signal.
15. A server as claimed in either Claim 13 or Claim 14, wherein the first output signal is configured to cause the first voting device to configure the appearance of the first button based on the cumulative count of the first input signal.
16. A server as claimed in Claim 14 or Claim 15, when dependent on Claim 14, wherein the second output signal is configured to cause the first voting device to configure the appearance of the second button based on the cumulative count of the second input signal.
17. A server as claimed in Claim 13, for tallying votes from several voting devices, wherein the communication interface is for receiving the first input signal from any one of the several voting devices, and the processor is configured to send the first output signal to the several voting devices via the communication interface, the first output signal including an indication of the cumulative count of the first input signal such that the several voting devices configure the appearance of the first button based on the cumulative count of the first input signal.
18. A server as claimed in Claim 17, for tallying votes from several voting devices, the several voting devices including a second button associated with a second voting option, wherein the communication interface is for receiving a second input signal from any one of the several voting devices, the second input signal indicating that the second voting option has been selected, and the processor is configured for producing a cumulative count of the second input signal and for sending a second output signal to the several voting devices via the communication interface, the second output signal including an indication of the cumulative count of the second input signal such that the several voting devices configure a the appearance of the second voting button based on the cumulative count of the second input signal.
19. A server as claimed in either Claim 17 or Claim 18, wherein the first output signal is configured to cause the several voting devices to configure the appearance of the first button based on the cumulative count of the first input signal.
20. A server as claimed in either Claim 18 or Claim 19, when dependent on Claim 18, wherein the second output signal is configured to cause the several voting devices to configure the appearance of the first button based on the cumulative count of the first input signal.
21. A voting device comprising a display, configured for showing a first button associated with a first voting option; a communication interface configured for sending a first signal to a server in response to the first voting option being selected, and for receiving a first count signal from the server, the first count signal including an indication of a cumulative count of the first voting option; and a processor, configured for adapting the appearance of the first button based on the cumulative count of the first voting option.
22. A voting device as claimed in Claim 21, wherein the display is also configured for showing a second button associated with a second voting option, the communication interface is configured for sending a second signal to the server in response to the second voting option being selected, and for receiving a second count signal from the server, the second count signal including an indication of a cumulative count of the second voting option, and the processor is also configured for adapting the appearance of the second voting button based on the cumulative count of the second voting option.
23. A voting device as claimed in either Claim 21 or Claim 22, wherein the processor is configured for changing the size of the first button based on the cumulative count of the first voting signal.
24. A voting device as claimed in either Claim 21 or Claim 22, wherein the processor is configured for highlighting the first button based on the cumulative count of the first voting signal.
25. A voting device as claimed in either Claim 22 or Claim 23, wherein the processor is configured for changing the size of the second button based on the cumulative count of the second voting signal.
26. A voting device as claimed in Claim 22, wherein the processor is configured for highlighting the second button based on the cumulative count of the second voting signal.
27. A method substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in accompanying Figures 2 to 4.
28. A server substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in accompanying Figures 2 to 4.
29. A voting device substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in accompanying Figures 2 to 4.