One begins to build a bridge
http://www.google.com/analytics/index.html
http://www.google.com/analytics/index.htmlhttp://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
http://www.google.com/analytics/index.htmlhttp://www.kaushik.net/avinash/http://blog.instantcognition.com/
http://webanalyticsland.com/web-analytics-books/http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/
Char Boothcharbooth@gmailblog: info-mational -
infomational.com@charbooth
Paul Signorelli & AssociatesSan Francisco,
[email protected]
Title slide: From Mollycakes photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollycakes/226843996/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Smartphones: From Csailas photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/csaila/3648816968/
Fire Hydrant: From Will Lions photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2595497078/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Bow & Arrow: From Melilabs photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melilab/2436615256/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Question Mark & Exclamation Point: From Horia Varlans
photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/horiavarlan/4290549806/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Man at Desk: From Brian Auers photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianauer/2104054031/
Sleeping at Desk: From Bewarenerds photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bewarenerd/238306029/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Mountains: From Christianisthedjs photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hcmedkamera/2291925430/
Molehills: From Stiphys photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/somebodysavedme/277634286/ Target:
From Ntangs photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ntang/21736757 Question Mark: From s
photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystaljingsr/3914729343/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Finish Line: From Jerekeys photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyreseus/507244847/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Fireworks: From Express Monorails photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/expressmonorail/3096574067/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Math Symbols: From Mykl Roventines photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/myklroventine/2332789392/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Gloves: From ARTSs photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arts/93481862/
Images taken from flickr.com unless otherwise noted
You must have gathered by now that were as interested in results
as descriptions. As weve overtly said several times today,
collecting data is the first step; using it effectivelykey word
there, everybody: effectivelyis the difference between a wasted
tool and an opportunity grabbed and mined to the benefit of
everyone involved. Its not unusual to hear those who are at the
head of the pack saying that if youre spending money on a web
analytics tool, that expenditure should be ten percent of your
budget; the other ninety percent is to pay peopleyour staff,
outside experts, anyone who could helpto analyze that data and help
you effectively use what youve learned. Once youve understood what
you have, the next step is to effectively communicate the
information to others who can change data to positive action.*Lets
backtrack for a moment. A growing field of interest is data
visualizationusing graphic representations to help others
understand what we are trying to convey. The New Media Consortiums
2010 Horizon Report saw this as an important and growing element of
technology in learning, and the 2011 report, which will be released
online in February 2011 (http://www.nmc.org/horizon), provides
updates on that theme. It takes us to an idea explored at an
entertainingly effective level in Chip and Dan Heaths book Switch.
The book opens with a story about how someone trying to draw
attention to a problem within a companythey were buying 400
different types of gloves to accomplish their workhit a brick wall
until he found the perfect way to draw attention to the situation:
collecting samples of every one of those 400 gloves and placing
them on a conference-room table so that everyone could see what a
purchasing nightmare they had created. So, do we bury people under
numbers, or augment them with images? And if we do use numbers, can
we do so creatively?
*Those familiar with Edward Tuftes work
(http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/index) on effective visual
representations are on familiar ground here. Were far from bar
charts and overwhelming amounts of text. With this Gapminder chart,
it all comes together with a combination of text, color, decent
design elementsthose circles that draw our attention right
away--and an easy-to-decipher legend. It shouldnt take more than
about thirty seconds for us to see that in 2010, China and India
had the largest GDPs in the world. Makes us wonder how we might use
similar tools to quickly show those approving our budgets how many
people we serve with relatively small amounts of an overall city or
county budget, doesnt it? Web analytics gives us the data, our own
creativity combined with visual analytics tools makes that
information meaningful.
There are other wonderful examples of what Gapminder does at
http://www.gapminder.org/downloads/.
*Another tool that isnt necessarily high on the list of topics
to cover in a basic web analytics session, but gives us food for
thought, is a tool called the keyword density checker, from
webconfs.com. Its very easy to use and gives us additional insight
into what is or is not drawing people to online presence. *Taking a
URLin this case, the URL for the Library of Congress
(http://www.loc.gov), we simply paste it into the keyword density
checker box and it produces a basic readout of the wordsand their
frequencyappearing on that page. *If we are trying to draw people
to our online photo collections and realize that the words photo or
photographs dont even appear on the page, we have a great hint as
to what we might do to draw more readers onto the site.
The next step, if were trying to convince others to take action,
is to turn to a tool like Wordle to capture their attention.*Wordle
is another tool that moves us from the realm of words as an
overwhelming jumble of hard-to-decipher information into words as
graphic elements. You can create word clouds similar to the
increasingly familiar tag clouds we see on blogs and other
websites, play with colors and appearance, and create another of
those pictures worth a thousand wordswith the words themselves.
Theres no mistaking what is important here*or here*or, quite
playfully, here.
More samples are available in Wordles online gallery.
The point, we hope, is obvious here. Web analytics, by itself,
is information. Web analytics combined with our imagination and our
willingness to translate that information into eye-catching
displays that can inspire positive action means better results for
all of us.
*As we move toward our final q&a for this session, lets talk
about a few resources to keep you going after you leave us
today.
Avinash Kaushik, in Web Analytics: An Hour a Day, offers an
entire page of recommended blogs for those interested in learning
more about the topic. A great starting point is the Google
Analytics blog.*Among the others are Kaushiks own Occams Razor.*A
third, Clint Ivys Instant Cognition, focuses on visual
representations of data to make information more understandableand
compellingto those receiving it. We hope it will serve as a great
complement to a topic weve explored with you today.*Those
interested in looking at web analytics from a business point of
view will find plenty of material in Avanish Kaushiks Web
Analytics: An Hour a Day. The WebAnalyticsLand website, which lists
a wide selection of books on the topic, is also a great resource.
And the Web Analytics Association is clearly an organization for
those who want to completely dive into the topic through a
professional membership group.
Well leave these up for you while we answer any remaining
questions you have, and we hope youll join us next week for the
second of our two sessions on web analytics.* * *
