Information Architecture and IA prototyping tools
By · CommentsWhile looking for Information Architecture (IA) tools recently, I just came across a new Firefox plugin which will be useful for User Interface (UI) prototyping and design called FluidIA. I’ve been using the Pencil plugin for Firefox off and on for a year now, so it will be nice to work with a new tool. FluidIA promises Fluid Information Architecture in the category of agile UI prototyping, which sets a high bar for usability and end results.
Along the same theme of this post…. have a look at the Midwest User Experience 2011 conference slides from last week. Something here for everyone, and a neat little web analytics presentation as well. Enjoy!
Retro moment
By · CommentsOh, the wonders of a moment of spare time and Google…. if you happen to need some old software titles, check out EMS – they even have a selection of OS/2 software, and I saw some old Webtrends log analyzer listings. Who knows what else they have?
Speaking of OS/2, I accidentally found the OS/2 Museum, which appears to be a rather recent development: posts only go back to mid-2010.
New Web Analytics Tools and updates to existing products
By · CommentsTop web analytics vendors have announced major upgrades to their flagship products at Winter/Spring 2011 conferences. Webtrends and Adobe (Omniture) are no exceptions!
In Webtrends Analytics 10, the big new features I’m excited about are the possibilities of gathering and reporting data not specifically tagged, and integration with external data sources such as Facebook, Twitter and pretty much anything with an API. With regards to gathering specifically untagged data, I’m not sure how it works, or if that is only possible using http logs, but it sounds intriguing.
Next there is Adobe which recently announced SiteCatalyst version 15 which will allow analysts to segment visitors ‘on the fly’ and will finally provide visits and visitors measures on just about every report where those were previously unavailable. (Now if only Regular Expressions were supported!). Another caveat: upgrades to SC15 won’t happen automatically and will have to be scheduled with support.
Couple these upgrades with ShufflePoint, a new business intelligence (BI) tool which can aggregate data from multiple sources and push it to various destinations and report formats. Right now ShufflePoint only supports pulling data from Google Analytics (but that covers a lot of web analytics users!), however many other sources will soon be added, including Webtrends, Omniture, Facebook, and Twitter.
One more thing I can’t resist: this possibly creepy tool called BeenCounter (as in where have you Been?). This tool is a branded as a behavioral targeting and tracking service. If you decide to install BeenCounter, this tool can dig in to the history bar of your visitor’s browser and dig out lists of sites your visitors have visited. Imagine what you could do with this data as a marketer… you’ll be able to tell if your customers have been surfing your competitors offerings and more. Of course, BeenCounter allows that they don’t track usage of sensitive sites. But what exactly does that mean?
Enjoy the new tools and technology!
Good Riddance IE6
By · Comments
In a merciful move to encourage (or shame) users into upgrading browsers, Microsoft has launched a campaign including a website to begin a countdown to a world free of its infamous Internet Explorer version 6 browser. Ask any developer about IE6 and you’ll get an earful of complaints about how it breaks sites coded with the best intentions and legal html and css. Enjoy the site, and tell a friend who might still run IE6 that the time is right to upgrade. (Unfortunately web developers still may need to keep a version around for testing purposes.)
Regular Expressions: a web analyst’s best friend
By · CommentsEver heard of Regular Expressions? The first time I read the term I thought, “Hmm, so what’s the difference between a regular expression and an irregular expresson?”
Ha ha. 
Since that day I’ve used regular expressions to save time and to cover a lot of ground really fast when searching through large text files (http log files), for text parsing in programming, and when confiiguring web analytics tools.
So, what are regular expressions, anyway? First, you might see them referred to as Regex. Regular Expressions are short, rather cryptic patterns used for finding text within large files. If memory serves, Regex originated in the Perl programming language. Anyway, regular expressions are fast. And handy. (And why on earth aren’t they more widely supported in Omniture?) Many widely used tools such as text editors and many programming languages support various implementations of Regex. Take the time to learn them and you’ll save a lot of time combing through large files trying to find all occurrences of a certain text string.
Web analytics consultancy Lunametrics has kindly released a nice little ebook about Regular Expressions and how they can be used in Google Analytics. It’s a free download – check it out! Your web analytics will be better for your learning effort.
One fantastic tool I use which supports Regex is AstroGrep (available from Sourceforge.net). I frequently use AstroGrep as a programming tool and as a http logfile utility. So useful for finding all log entries for a certain site visitor (sessionalizing a user’s clickstream), etc.
Hot topic: opt-in / opt-out of cookie tracking
By · CommentsI feel this is a topic to watch – that of web tracking opt-in / opt-out. Many in the web industry are watching this closely. Optincookie.com is one site which will help you keep apprised of developments and how they can affect the web analytics community.
Jacques Warren has recently provided this post which covers the delights of upgrading a self-hosted Webtrends installation. Self-hosted Webtrends is now called ‘Webtrends OnPremises’. This information is very welcome, because upgrades always made me nervous – so much is usually at stake.
Comparing web analytics tools
By · CommentsThis post will grow and eventually turn into a more complete resource, but for now here is a start. This comparison page places three web analytics tools side-by-side, and as a little bonus lists CMS integration info (at the bottom of the table). The three tools examined at the link above are Piwik, Google Analytics, and Open Web Analytics (OWA).
Don’t let the fact that this link will take you to a page written in Brazilian Portuguese (my second language) hold you back: all the links are to content written in English. The IdealMind blog contains many valuable tips and discussions about web development, web analytics and more. But this list of conversion rate tips all in one place is a great find. What’s more, there’s a link to the post which originally inspired IdealMind’s author: a link to more than 600 (at the present time) links to help you improve your site’s conversion rate. Enjoy!
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