Taking a deep dive into online analytics takes considerable time and effort. But with the right coding and benchmarks, that vast ocean of data can be paired down to a stream that’s easily understandable and actionable.
Ken Tabor, principal product engineer at Sabre, talked Friday about the important role analytics can play for modern companies at the Big Design conference at the Crowne Plaza Dallas hotel. It’s about fact-based decision making, he said.
“These are your users speaking to you. I implore you to listen to what they are saying because you can measure your users’ experience and this informs your UX [user experience] design and development, Tabor said. “Analytics reporting is going to change your culture. It’s getting away from ‘I think’ and ‘I guess’ and ‘This is the way we used to do it.’”
“Analytics reporting is going to change your culture. It’s getting away from ‘I think’ and ‘I guess’ and ‘This is the way we used to do it.’”
Ken Tabor
Instead of playing a guessing game of who you think interacts with your app, Google analytics and other similar services can answer some of the most critical questions for app and web designers.
Are people using tablets, mobile, or desktop? Android or iPhone, and what operating system? What screen resolution? What country are they from?
That helps determine whether your website should be configured for mobile, whether it needs special features for certain devices, if a higher resolution is needed, and what languages should be offered.
“Once you do share this, everybody in your organization top to bottom from testers, artists and designers are all going to have more information that’s going to affect changes every single moment of every single day,” Tabor said. “How powerful is that to say this is why I’m doing this?”
Individual widgets within websites or apps can be coded to provide feedback on what users are doing with it. If no one is using a certain feature, you can tweak it or figure out why.
That’s what happened when Tabor was designing Tripcase, an app that helps travelers keep track of their itinerary. They got an exclusive deal to have Uber appear on the homescreen for the app but that meant another feature had to be deleted to make room.
“Demand access to this data. Because analytics shouldn’t be a bummer. It should be inspirational.”
Ken Tabor
They ultimately decided to nix the phone call feature within the app since analytics showed few people used it.
Tabor also stressed that upper management shouldn’t keep analytics a secret.
“Demand access to this data,” Tabor said. “Because analytics shouldn’t be a bummer. It should be inspirational.”
More Big Design Coverage
Big Design: Dallas-based Spacee Creates New AR Experience
Big Design: 12 Tips for Using SEO to Your Advantage
Big Design: Breaking the Data Visualization Code
Ken Tabor of Sabre speaks at the Big Design event. Photo by Nicholas Sakelaris
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