Techniques for presenting content to a user based on the user's preferences

A computer system for refining an output of an information retrieval system based on a user context associated with a data consumer, the user context indicating user preferences of a user, wherein the information retrieval system is configured to facilitate access to information items from digital content, the information items comprising information on a plurality of items, the information including a plurality of item attributes of the plurality of items, wherein a respective item of the plurality of items is any suitable object or information about which a data consumer may express preferences, and wherein a respective information item comprises item attributes corresponding to the respective item, the computer system comprising:

• a preference engine configured to:
• derive from the user context, at least one first-order preference, wherein the at least one first-order preference comprises, a preference among attribute values of at least one first attribute of the plurality of items;
• derive at least one second-order preference associated with the user context, wherein the at least one second-order preference comprises a preference among a plurality of second attributes of the plurality of items;
• and
• encode a preference model comprising preference attributes, wherein the preference attributes comprise the user preferences encoded as attributes based on at least a subset of the at least one first attribute of the first-order preferences and the plurality of second attributes of the second-order preferences;
• and
• the information retrieval system configured to access the preference model to rank, based on the preference attributes, at least a subset of the plurality of information items associated with the plurality of item attributes to obtain a ranking of the information items in the subset.

A tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for refining an output of an information retrieval system based on a user context associated with a data consumer, the user context indicating user preferences of a user, wherein the information retrieval system is configured to facilitate access to information items from digital content, the information items comprising information on a plurality of items, the information including a plurality of item attributes of the plurality of items, wherein a respective item of the plurality of items is any suitable object or information about which a data consumer may express preferences, and wherein a respective information item comprises item attributes corresponding to the respective item, wherein the instructions, when executed by at least one processor, cause the computer to:

• derive, by a preference engine, from the user context, at least one first-order preference, wherein the at least one first-order preference comprises, a preference among attribute values of at least one first attribute of the plurality of items;
• derive, by the preference engine at least one second-order preference associated with the user context, wherein the at least one second-order preference comprises a preference among a plurality of second attributes of the plurality of items;
• encode, by the preference engine, a preference model comprising preference attributes, wherein the preference attributes comprise the user preferences encoded as attributes based on at least a subset of the at least one first attribute of the first-order preferences and the plurality of second attributes of the second-order preferences;
• and
• access, by the information retrieval system, the preference model to rank, based on the preference attributes, at least a subset of the plurality of information items associated with the plurality of item attributes to obtain a ranking of the information items in the subset.