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My suggestions to further enhance Google Analytics

The team responsible for the development of Google Analytics (GA) has developed an extremely robust application and it's always improving. With the recent addition of it's custom reporting and advanced segment reporting, it even meets many of my needs.) That being said, there are several items that I would like to see implemented in the near future.

#1: Customizable dashboard metrics:
I am familiar with Coremetrics and feel it's dashboard customization capabilities are a wonderful complement to the application as a whole. Collected data can be viewed in any number of customizable outputs so it can provide a snapshot to the user.

With regards to GA, some enhancements would allow persistent views of customized data reports to be built in as well. Imagine having the ability to compile a series of customized metrics and view these within the dashboard.

Additionally, I would imagine that within various reports, a new button could be added globally called "add this view to my dashboard". By clicking on this hypothetical button, a snapshot of the particular report would then be saved to a user's dashboard.

Ideally, these customized dashboards would be attributed to an individual's account regardless of user type (administrator vs. user). I would imagine that various users would have separate preferences on snapshots of data, much like Coremetrics' allows as well. Much like the sharing capabilities found within "Advanced Segment" reports, these custom dashboards could also be shared.

Lastly, whereas GA only allows a maximum of (4) dashboards to appear, users could display an infinite number of dashboards modules (assuming performance issues would not be a factor). All dashboards, whether standard or custom, could then be sorted through a drag and drop mechanism, as is currently provided within the application.

#2: Compare metrics from other profiles:
Various profiles can share (1) account, primarily for administrative reasons. GA allows the notion of comparing various metrics as long as the data resides within (1) profile. It would be useful to be able to compare metrics from (2) or more profiles. As a result, individuals would then be able to compare data from subdomains, microsites, even filters.

Naturally, comparisons would be constrained to profiles within (1) GA account as all profiles within an account share the same Account ID. Only administrators of a given account would be able to set up this comparison. Users would be able to view this comparison report only if they have access to each compared domain within a particular account. 

#3: Comparing non-sequential date ranges:
Currently GA allows you to choose a sequential date range and even compare it to another date range in the past. Another wonderful enhancement would allow a user the ability to select non-sequential days in a month or times within a given day. This is currently only possible through the "Custom Reporting" tool. I would imagine this sort of within the calendar selection tool (top-right of the application) as an "advanced date selection".

#4: Account migration and/or removal:
This enhancement is more or less utilitarian in nature. If a user is an "administrator" they are, in essence, the owner of an account. An administrator can add other administrators or users however they can not transfer or remove access rights for themselves under an account they have created.

Imagine an administrator sets up a GA account through their own account. They then leave a job or are no longer responsible for administering an account. They can not "pass the baton" to another administrator if they so choose - they are in essence "stuck" with an account unless the account is deleted altogether.

Another related scenario, lies within a "user's" inability to be removed from an account. "Administrators" can grant account access to users and can delete them. Why can't user's delete their own access to a given account?

#5: Integration of Greasemonkey's "Business Notes" Feature:
Routinely, more than one individual reviews metric data. Since the creation of GA's Custom Reports feature, I have found that a little bit of explanation can go a long way in terms of deciphering a report. By merely providing a notes feature (bonus points for integrating this feature with Google Docs), individuals can review customized reports and make sense of the data by reading any explanation I provide for them.

Additional Recommendations:
  • Integration of "Google Website Optimizer"
  • Integration of Heatmaps
  • Enhancements with Real-time data collection
  • Enhanced support for off-site data collection
  • Collection of offline data

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8/05/2009 09:18:00 PM Subscribe to RSS FeedSubscribe to RSS Feed


Comments: 1

I am not at all suggesting Google implemented #5 (above) because of me, however it is nice to see that this roll out is coming out...

By Blogger Justin Stauffer,at December 7, 2009 at 10:32 PM  

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