Because each website appeals to its audience differently, the prudent user experience designer takes a measured approach when communicating; especially when they do so on behalf of their client. No matter what the vision and no matter how it’s executed, a design can always communicate more effectively. Online and off we gauge the effectiveness of communication by its affect; in other words: what action(s) do people take after they give us their attention? Properly utilized, Web Analytics helps us answer this fundamental question.
As the article progresses it provides just enough detail about how analytics, or more specifically measurement, is being applied today. it starts out with discussing how to design an Outcome and then takes you through the basic three step optimization program: Measure, Monitor, & Act.
While the article is well written and has some great points, to be honest I’m most excited that Andrew in all his diligent research has listed me as an “official” Web Analytics Luminary amongst some of the great and well known industry leaders. In addition Andrew cited two of my presentations for further learning and reading: User Experience By the Numbers for Behavioral Metrics and if I could make my grandparents understand what I do for a living you too can understand the process and rules that govern analytics with Analytics & Gambling – How Similar They Really Are presentation. THANKS ANDREW!!!
“User Experience By The Numbers” is my presentation I gave at JBoye Conferences Philadelphia 2010 on May 5th. This presentation shows how user experience (UX) professionals can start using web analytics to inform the experiences they design by focusing on Behavioral Metrics and using onsite search and SEO to inform site content for a better experience.
1) Behavioral Metrics – which are what I feel everyone, but especially UX folks should be focusing on. Behavioral Metrics actually capture and show a user’s behavior, which is in contrast to site and aggregate metrics (visits, visitors, page views, etc).
2) Content & Keywords – By understanding your visitors natural language you can apply that knowledge to you site and improve your SEO, SEM, content, URLs, metadata, labeling, taxonomy, ontology, site navigation, etc.
Both of these methods are a huge step in the direction of leveraging both qualitative & quantitative data and is very easy to learn. GUARANTEE if you use these two methods it will have a MAJOR impact on improving the experiences you design.
Q: Do you think websites and web design have the power to shape lifestyles and enhance health?
Q: What’s the future of social media?
Q: Where will this lead?
Q: We’ve seen applications that allow you to look up grocery items to determine if they’re gluten free or allow you to search from home for the nearest store that has a certain product. What’s the next step?
This was a fun interview to do. The article Pam envisioned was not what came out of it. She expected me to talk about how the Intranet & websites will make people healthier so it took an interesting turn from the beginning, but came out quite well if I say so myself.
A few weeks ago I posted Google Analytics Adds 8 New Features that covered some major changes to the Google Analytics platform. Just the other day, as part of a rolling release strategy for Google Analytics they have released a couple more new features and some updates to existing features. I’ve checked these out already (be aware that not you may have access to them just yet, but you will shortly) and I have to say I’m impressed. Google Analytics is really pushing the boundaries by taking into account how and what an analyst really has to go through on an everyday basis (it’s more than just reporting on the numbers) and is really beginning to make our (data) lives a whole lot better.
Custom Variables Now Available In Advanced Segments – “UPDATE TO EXISTING FEATURE – Multiple Custom Variables”: from my last post “Multiple Custom Variables lets you customize your Google Analytics to collect unique site usage data”. Until now, if you wanted to use Custom Variables you had to use the standard Custom Variables report under Visitors. Now, you can create custom segmentation on a any key and and combination of Custom Variables (visitors, sessions, or pages). I.e. if you have created a Custom Variable, let’s say “New Member”, you can now view that variable across all of your reports.
Custom Variables Available In Custom Reports - Now Custom Reports can be created with any of the key or value dimensions that have been associated with a Custom Variable. This allows you take ANY metric and match it with the behavior from a segment that you have defined in you Custom Variables.
New Analytics Tracking Code Setup Wizard - I’ll admit it, manually configuring your Google Analytics (any really platforms) Tracking Code is a pain in the behind at best of times. Think back if you’ve ever had to track campaigns, cross-domain tracking, multiple subdomains, mobile, PHP sites, etc. I believe you’ll recall it was “less than fun”. Well now there is a new tracking code setup wizard to help you out that automatically generates your tracking code based upon your specified setup options in your profile. View Full Size
Annotations – This feature is OUTSTANDING! From day one as an analyst you are taught that as a best practice you always write down & track what you’ve done, discovered, tried, etc. The problem of course has simply been “where you keep those notes”, i.e. a notebook, word document, local on your computer, etc. Well no more! The Annotations feature allows you leave a quick little note to yourself or others, such as “why that spike in traffic happened over the Holidays”. Now if you think about that for a moment, not only can simply leaving ‘notes’ for you or someone else be a real time saver, but Annotations can act as a central repository for managing your Business & Design decisions. And there was much rejoicing! Be sure to check out this video for details.
Coming Soon – Updates to the Google Analytics API will include: Support for Advanced Segmentation, new data dimensions and metrics.
Google Analytics has made quite a stir and there has been lots of talk regarding the newest 8 features into its existing tool. These new features include: New Engagement Goal, Expanded Mobile Reporting, Advanced Table Filtering, Unique Visitors Metric, Multiple Custom Variables, Sharing Segments and Custom Reporting Templates, Analytics Intelligence, & Custom Alerts.
In case you haven’t checked them out or don’t now what to do with them let’s take a quick look at what they can do…
New Engagement Goals – lets you define up to 20 goals site conversions per profile. It also now measures user engagement and branding success through allowing you to set thresholds for “Time on Site” and “Pages per Visit”.
Expanded Mobile Reporting – lets you track your mobile applications and mobile websites performance through your iPhone or Android phones (apps: SDKs and documentation). And if you are tracking non-Java-Script enabled phones, that’s OK too! (code instructions)
Advanced Table Filtering - allows you to quickly filter through rows in a table based on various metric conditions. This video shows how your could filter thousands of keywords to identify only the keywords with a bounce rate of less than 30% and that referred at least 25 visits!
Unique Visitors Metric - this feature allows you to track how many actual visitors (via unique cookies) arrived at your site.
Multiple Custom Variables - lets you customize your Google Analytics to collect unique site usage data. Similar to the _setVar() function, but with the addition that you can define and track visitors based upon visitor attributes – section viewed, returning, not logged-in.
Sharing Segments and Custom Reporting Templates – if you created a custom report for a client or a particular tea, e.g. marketing, all you have to do now is share the URL for that particular report and it will import the pre-formatted template into that user’s account.
Analytics Intelligence and Custom Alerts - an algorithm-based monitoring system that will send you an alert on a trigger that you set up on various metrics or dimensions. I.e. you can get an alert for a 250% surge in visits from Twitter referrals last Friday or let you know visitor bounce rates from New York increased by 35% three weeks ago.
Asynchronous Tracking Code - helps speed up the performance and accuracy of your Google Analytics tracking. The new script (yes you do need to swap code) optimizes how browsers load “ga.js". You can also place your analytics snippet higher in the page without impacting content loading.
Overall these are some really nice and useful features that can really help you drive greater insights from your website or mobile application. If you want a more in-depth intro be sure to register for the Google Analytics Webinar on December 9th 2009.
