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:

1. 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!
2. 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?
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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?
6. 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.
7. 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?
8. 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.

Man. The past couple of days have felt like those days where you keep JUST missing the bus (which I did both mornings). Though I did get to go to the Good Fries Place on Monday, which made me feel better.

WebTrends Update

I was kindly informed that WebTrends has a new beta version that should have a much improved user experience and features.  While I don’t have access to the beta to test it out, based on the mock-ups and callouts it does seem pretty cool. Or at least like there’s more Design behind it. Some things, like added breadcrumb navigation, are small changes but immensely helpful I think. It also sounds useful to be able to compare across profiles by metric, and see the percent changes for metrics when comparing. Basically it just looks cool, and I think the beta goes public in August? I want to try it out for sure.

WebTrends Report Screenshot

YWA

I really need to stop following Yahoo Web Analytics on Twitter, because they keep posting about all their cool features, and like the WebTrends beta, its available to a limited audience.

“Yahoo! Web Analytics is currently offered for free to all Yahoo! Small Business Merchant Standard, Merchant Professional and Store merchants, and all Advertisers that are supported by a Yahoo! Account Manager.”

Lame.com. They claim to have an advantage by using raw data and delivering in real-time. I was interested in seeing how including Twitter in their search results would play out, but I guess I’ll just have to become a Yahoo! Small Business Merchant or wait.

Epic Fails

I fully intended to go to the entire Web Analytics Wednesday event yesterday and then I was sucked into staying late at ZAAZ. I didn’t realize the structure of the event so I thought it was just mingling most of the time, but I walked into a discussion of the talk on integrating social media into web analytics. Then I had to leave early to see Harry Potter and I didn’t even get to meet anyone. What I did hear of the discussion was interesting, with people unsure about the influence and impact of social media and Twitter especially, where one person can impact exponentially more people through followers and retweets. I’m sad I missed any talk of good tools to use though.

So then I went to watch Dumbledore die, and I sat down in the front row of the theatre and realized “Oh no. This is a Harry Potter movie so its going to be at least 3 hours.” I barely stayed awake but it was enjoyable overall.

Tomorrow I’m going to the Oregon coast! Yay! Time for Tillamook ice cream, the beach, and good beer.

I’ve played around with WebTrends some already, but now I can compare it more to Omniture and Google Analytics. Main things that struck me:

1. Things take forever to load (especially when you first open a profile because of the volume of data) and there’s no indication of that the page is still loading. This is a UI feedback issue, but still, kind of annoying.
2. The dashboard (I think the same goes for Omniture too) is not easily manipulable like in Google Analytics.
3. I like their way of changing the period of time viewed, that its a calendar and a drop down menu of common time periods.
4. Its nice to be able to have templates so you can easily access certain reports that are targeted for deeper analysis within a profile.
5. Graphs are not very visually appealing, so I can see why you’d need to create graphs and charts in Excel most of the time.
6. You can create a calculated measure for a metric, such as bounce rate (I still wish it were automatic like in GA though). **OK I lied, I think you still need to calculate bounce rate in Excel because of the available fields for report queries and calculated measures.
7. What is an active visit, WebTrends? I discussed this with someone for 10 minutes and we could not figure out the difference between an active visit and a normal visit. They claim its something to do with sessions, but the numbers were almost exactly the same, so who knows.
8. I did like that they define terms on each report page, which is nice for a novice, but you can turn it off as well.

Ultimately this seemed about the same as Omniture, though I know there are more differences, my only preference would be for Omniture based on the UI alone. I’m sure I will develop a more detailed impression over time.

Also, Seattle? Thunderstorms, really?

UPDATE: talked to someone about active visits in WebTrends, and found out that its a metric meant to measure the users who are on the site overnight as one visitor. So if someone is looking at the site from 11:59 PM until 12:03 AM the following day, they will not be counted as 2 visitors. He also said that he doesn’t really use this metric (I didn’t think that “active visits” would comprise a large segment of users), and this made me feel vindicated.