Non-Power Users prefer Personalization, while Power Users prefer to Customize their webpages

Personalization is that the computer controls what the user observes, and customization is that the user chooses what he observes.

Personalization and customization are very important when we are talking about the interaction between a user and software. Web interface is very important and we want to discuss how customization and personalization affect this idea. An average person hearing the words customization and personalization may not recognize the difference between the two and may use them interchangeably. These words sound like they have the same basic idea, but they are completely different. Personalization is a vital part of the user experience. Personalization is the idea that when the webpages adapt to the user without the user going out of his way to make any changes. The number of personalization variants seems countless today. An example of personalization is when Netflix gives you a related movie option after you watch one. When you watch a horror movie Netflix gives you other popular horror movies that are related to the one you just watched. Netflix also does that for television series so you do not have to search hard for the next episode. This gives the user the ability to select the next thing he wants without going out of his way. On the other hand, customization is the concept of the user actively changing and modifying the user interface based on their own preference. A good example of customization on web interface is Facebook and twitter. On these sites you can customize your profiles to the way you desire. You can have different themes and you can customize the settings the way you desire them. Another good example is our website we are currently using, blogger. Customization places what the user sees in the users’ hands. Personalization places the website in control of what the user sees. Agency gives the user the freedom to make their own decisions. Customization gives the user the ability to have agency because they get to customize the website the way they desire. Personalization does not truly give the user agency because the user does not make the changes on his own, they just happen.

Power users prefer Customization of a webpage, while Non-power users prefer Personalization of a webpage  

I found that the most interesting facts were from study one in this article. The study was what the difference between responses from non-power users and power users and how they favor personalization or customization on the internet. In the study, 82 participants were exposed to the standard view of the Google News Website. The participants were asked to browse the website for 15 minutes in two separate sessions. The participants were exposed to the website through the control variable, personalization version, or customized version.

Skilled power users prefer Customization of their webpages, while average non-power users prefer personalization of their webpages.

We find that power users prefer customization on the web and non-power users prefer personalization. A power user would be someone that is a professional in the world of research. They would be the ones who are professionals at video editing, graphic designing, audio producers, and those who do scientific research. These people also have the newest and most quality devices. Whereas a non-power user is someone who just uses there computers for normal things like basic web browsing, email, social media, and paper writing.

There is a major difference between power users and non-power users. The difference between these two help us understand why they would choose one kind of version over the others. Why do power-users prefer customization over personalization? Because power users know everything about their computers and about research so they can easily customize their computers and research techniques way better than the computer would ever be able to because of their technological knowledge in these areas. For non-power users they probably would never want to customize their own computers because they would not even know how to use it. These people rely on the personalization of their computers in order to use the internet effectively. I would put myself in the non-power user category because having to customize my own webpage seem like too much for me.  This is why personalizing something seems more preferred for non-power users when given the choice for making a web page or their computer more personal.