As you may have noticed, I’ve talked about the new beta from WebTrends before, but I wasn’t able to really talk about it until today now that its been publicly released! I’m posting the press release below for those who are interested, as well as screenshots.
I spent a loooong time playing with the beta and overall I was really pleased with the user experience. Its leaps and bounds beyond what it used to be, and is employing lots of the things I like most about Google Analytics in terms of ease of use and flexibility. My initial impressions are mainly focused on the UI and UX, and some things might be nitpicky, but I automatically do heuristic evaluations. Blame the iSchool. So in no particular order:
- The main dashboard for profiles within accounts is great because a) it has a bunch of commonly used metrics (pageviews, visits, BOUNCE RATE (finally!!), avg. time on site), and b) you can easily compare across profiles for these metrics, which is immensely useful!
- My one complaint about the account profiles dashboard is that the columns have a fixed width, and a lot of the profiles I work with have longer names, which makes it slightly difficult to scan for the correct profile. Maybe I’m just getting a Web 2.0-ish feel and wanting everything to have dragging capabilities?
- I really liked the default graph for viewing a particular profile (with the same common metrics); being able to see data for any date in the selected time period at a glance is a nice feature. Sadly, you can’t use the same visualization for the secondary metrics.
- The user can choose between the default line graph, RSS overlay (which I don’t entirely understand yet), table view, and “story” view. I like that there are more choices for data output within WebTrends, and I think the “story” part was intended to make data more accessible, but some people I spoke with worried that the “story” could become an excuse for lazy analysis.
- Overall, navigation is easy to figure out and to switch between modes/options. In an interesting IA choice, the rest of the metrics are listed below the main div in a flat navigation, but still in a secondary location to the more common metrics. It might be because the less prominent metrics need more space because they involve less numbers and more words?
- Minor detail, but when looking at a report in detail, or when there is pagination, things look clickable when they should not be, i.e. being able to click on “previous” when viewing the 1st page in a series.
- I think I was happiest when I could export a report in 2 clicks in either CSV or REST URI. I am always getting errors normally when exporting in the current version of WebTrends, so this was refreshing. I wasn’t clear on why you would use REST URIs (even after looking up what that is) or why you would choose Excel vs. XML vs. JSON?
- My biggest complaint is with the bugs (expected in a beta) that led to numerous error pages, and no real help for explaining how to do things or why errors were happening. This feels like the bane of my existence the past couple days, but in a new system it seems so necessary to have help documentation easily accessible versus just a brief overview of the tool.
Despite the minor complaints, I think WebTrends is becoming more of a happy medium between the power of enterprise analytics tools and great UX in tools like GA. You can tell that they have spent a lot of time thinking about how web analysts (and non-web analysts) will be using their tool, and I think it has paid off in a great product. I look forward to seeing the beta work out its kinks. Apologies for the lengthy post, but its probably an easier read if you can try out the beta!
Official Screenshots
*I’m too lazy right now to make these photos align correctly. Sorry.
RSS Overlay: Add external RSS feeds and items will group by date snapping to any of the key metrics, providing unique correlation opportunities.
profile dashboard rss
Share to Web Services: Easily generate web service URI’s to embed in applications, widgets, and Excel (for live dashboards).
profile dashboard story
Story View: View data in a whole new way with story view. This narrative flow with embedded metrics allows for quick comprehension and with a quick copy and paste, a user can embed these descriptions right into an email, presentation, or document.
exporting files
WT Press release
Webtrends Analytics 9 Sets New Standard in Enterprise Customer Intelligence
New On Demand version simply, powerfully uncovers customer insight with a click-to-crunch interface, data-in/data-out API and the industry’s most powerful core analytics
PORTLAND, Ore., – Aug. 4, 2009 – Webtrends, the enterprise customer intelligence company that started the web analytics industry, today introduced its most significant advances in user experience and data integration in its 15+ year history.
Webtrends Analytics 9 makes data the interface. Uncovering customer trends is as simple as clicking on numbers on the screen. Cross-channel insight emerges from RSS-enabled overlays of company news, sales and other business data on top of trended web metrics. Key web metrics are automatically translated to plain English text, shared throughout an organization and viewed in any interface.
“Webtrends has created an entirely new user experience that makes it remarkably easy for us to quickly retrieve and provide key decision makers with necessary web analytics data. This sleek new design will provide better top-line perspective while allowing us to think about and leverage this data more effectively,” said Kate Johnson, Digital Relationship Marketing Manager, Kimberly-Clark. “Many analytic providers are lacking in this need so we’re very excited to see the direction Webtrends is going with this powerful new visual interface.”
Webtrends Analytics 9 is comprised of three primary components:
Insight Interface: No Instructions Necessary
The new Analytics 9 Insight interface offers breakthroughs in data exploration and visualization, including:
· RSS Overlays. Quickly determine how other marketing investments are influencing your web site by visually overlaying data from any RSS feed on top of trending web metrics. Overlays from Webtrends Social Measurement, for example, provide direct insight into the relationships between web site traffic and activity on enthusiast blogs, video channels and other interactive media.
· Story View. Automatically convert data and metrics into non-technical narratives that offer written context that graphs and charts can’t. The text can be downloaded and shared as PowerPoint, Word, and other formats.
Data-in, No Restrictions. Data-out, No Fees
Webtrends’ industry leading application programming interface (API) provides self-service access and integration of online and offline data without any added charges:
· Live spreadsheets. Review web site metrics throughout the day in live spreadsheets that anyone can access. Create Excel dashboards with live data in three easy steps.
· Data collection. Uncover cross-channel trends and business opportunities by programmatically sending data from mobile applications, devices and any other standards-based source to Webtrends hosted collection service for processing and analysis alongside your web site traffic and other data.
· Data Extraction. Populate widgets, dashboards and other applications with Webtrends data using reliable, no-cost Webtrends Web Services, built with Representational State Transfer (REST) URLs and other web standards. Or combine data from Webtrends and other business intelligence tools to create best-of-breeds solutions catered to your business.
Powerful to the Core
Analytics 9 provides all of the core analytics features customers depend on with Webtrends On Demand, including:
· Unlimited scale, capacity. Distinct and fully redundant data collection, analysis and rendering help absorb even the largest spikes in traffic without system outages or lost data.
· Unmatched data flexibility. Unlimited dimensions and measures based on any attribute or parameter let you explore your data without restrictions or incurring extra charges.
Analytics 9 is available for purchase beginning today. Current Webtrends On Demand customers have access to Analytics 9 at http://Insight.Webtrends.com.
“I am enormously proud of this release. It represents a commitment we made to our customers just last April at our Engage conference —we are the most Powerful, we are the most Open and we will be the most Elegant solution in the market.” said Alex Yoder, CEO of Webtrends. “Analytics 9 turns the page for an entire industry that has just been focused on reporting and brings the depth of the data that Webtrends uniquely collects to life for the entire enterprise to analyze and take action with.”
Learn more about the breakthrough features of Analytics 9 (including screenshots)
About Webtrends Inc.
Webtrends is an enterprise customer intelligence company that turns online and offline data into understanding. Webtrends delivers the industry’s most recognized search engine marketing, visitor intelligence, and analytics solutions to enable companies to understand their customers, drive engagement, and enhance marketing and brand awareness. Thousands of global organizations, including Microsoft, Reuters, General Mills and Ticketmaster have chosen Webtrends business solutions and client services expertise to optimize their customers’ online experiences. You can learn more about Webtrends products and services at http://www.webtrends.com/ or call 1.877.932.8736.
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