Exploratory and Predictive Analytics of User Preferences from Kaggle LEGO-Toys Datasets Using Spark ML

Apache Spark is an open-source distributed data processing framework. The paper presents a processing architecture for exploring and predicting user preferences using Apache Spark. The architecture is evaluated on LEGO-toys datasets of period 1949-2019 using the Spark Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. The large datasets analyzed consist of LEGO-toys parts, categories, themes and colour features. Spark ML algorithms are applied as (i) k-means analyses of clusters to identify commonalities in LEGO-toys themes and colours, (ii) classifications using the Support Vector Machines (SVMs), Naïve Bayes (NB) and Random Forest (RF) algorithms for theme-preference identification, and (iii) linear regression, decision tree regression, RF, and Gradient Boost for regression analyses to identify the colour-shift in user preferences. The paper elucidates the steps for analytics based on Spark. The results for exploratory and predictive analytics are presented. The evaluation metrics shows that the ensemble regression prediction is better when compared to other algorithms. The analytics give many interesting results. For example, LEGO company's products have become more colourful (children preferences exhibiting colours spectral-shift and width), diversified and multifaceted over-the-time. The architecture helps in discovering future directions for the new designs in future LEGO products. The proposed architecture can be successfully employed in the related domain to predict product and user's preferences.