The Rectangles

21/05/2018

#7 Event

Events are user interactions with specific elements on your page that can be tracked in Google Analytics. Those actions can be clicks on buttons, downloads, video plays, Flash elements and many others. Event is a batch of information that is transferred to the report when user clicks on tracked element. You can attached to the event the following values: Category, Action, Label and Value.
A category is a name that you supply as a way to group objects that you want to track like "Video". Action is the type of interaction you want to track, in our example "Play". With Label you can add additional information that will make it easier for you to recognize the event in the report, e.g. "Bohemian Rhapsody". With Value you assign a numerical value to a tracked page object, for example the price of an eBook.
Combining goals and events can bring you great results and good ideas for improving your business. If you do not know what Goals are yet, read our previous post.

Here you will find a guide how to implement event tracking, if you need some help give us a shout!
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/events

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14/05/2018

#6 Goal

A configuration setting that allows you to track the valuable actions, or conversions, that happen on your site or mobile app. It can be hitting a play button on the video, submitting the form, subscribing to the newsletter or purchasing a product.
Every action you find valuable for your business can and should be tracked in order to measure conversions and evaluate the effectiveness of your online business or campaigns.
You are limited to only 20 goals per view, if you wish to track more than 20 you need to set up another view. Be careful though, because actually you can't delete existing goals, you are able to stop recording data for unwanted goals!

Here you'll find a great guide to Goals:
https://online-metrics.com/analytics-goals/

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07/05/2018

#5 Bounce Rate and Exit Rate

The difference between Bounce Rates and Exit Rates is significant, but sometimes hard to tell.
Bounce Rate is the number of visitors who viewed only one site and then left divided by total entries to the page. Exit Rate, on the other hand, is the total percentage of exits on a page.
In other words, bounce rate is the percentage of people who landed on a page and immediately left, while exit rate represents the percentage of visitors who clicked away to a different site from a particular page. In the second case, visitors may have viewed more than one page in a session.
We use both metrics to determine whether the page is generally well received or not, e.g., high bounce rate on the sign-up page may indicate that the form doesn't provide good user experience. Or, too many drop-offs on the promoted page may mean that AdWords ads might have attracted the wrong kind of traffic.

Here you will find more about bounce rate:
https://yoast.com/understanding-bounce-rate-google-analytics/

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30/04/2018

#4 Session
A number of user interactions with a website that take place within a given time frame. A single user can open several sessions - when one of them ends, he can instantly start another. Google Analytics initiates a 30-minute countdown once a session has been started. If you return to browsing after 31 minutes, a new session begins, so you leave two GA records. There is a way to change session duration in Property Settings to match your users' typical behavior (e.g., your site has a lot of content, and you expect that it will take a long time for the average user to browse it all). You can use the number of sessions metric to assess how often users return to your website and how many visits on average it takes for them to finally convert. This can be helpful in optimizing the conversion funnel and at the end of the day - increasing sales.

Read about the basics of GA Sessions here:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2731565?hl=en

# UXTipsforSaaS 🔬

27/04/2018

Every self-respecting UX designer must have heard of Balsamiq - right?
This week they're interviewing Alina Prelicz-Zawadzka, a.k.a. the co-founder of The Rectangles, asking her how to do wireframes, business and... Well, find out for yourself!

UX design works best when it’s an iterative and ongoing process. Read about an innovative UX design company, what they do, and how.

23/04/2018

#3 Filters
Filters are used to segment data into smaller chunks. They can include only specific subsets of traffic, exclude unwanted data, or track and replace certain pieces of information.
Bear in mind that data which isn't included in the view for which filters are created can not be restored or recovered, so it's extremely important to test filters before applying them to views, especially the important ones.
Usually we create filters to exclude internal IPs of our clients and our agency - it ensures us that the data we collect only concerns users and not developers and UX designers wandering around.
Than we also add the Lowercase Request URI filter which forces all URIs to be lowercase, so that the results do not duplicate with different case sizes.
But there are tons of different things that can be achieved by applying filters to your views - read this article about the basics and if you have any questions - give us a shout!

https://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2015/12/10/basic-google-analytics-filters/

# UXTipsforSaaS 🔬

16/04/2018

#2 View

A view or reporting view is a subset of the Property that can have its own unique configuration settings. Google Analytics automatically creates an unfiltered view for every property and allows you to set up to 25 views inside. It's a good practice to create three separate views: the Raw View to backup data just in case you need to recover it, the Main View with all information you want to track and the Test View for experimenting with settings and filters you want to add to the Main View.
Here on the view level you can add goals, filters and create segments which helps you collect all the valuable data. We'll cover all of the above in the next parts of our cycle.

Read about the basics of Analytics views:
https://medium.com/therectangles/set-your-google-analytics-right-right-now-637af19c9d40

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09/04/2018

Today we are launching the second series of our UX Tips for Saas - this time it's all about Google Analytics! Making good use of it can be difficult at first, so we hope that our tips can help you a little!

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#1 Property
A sub-component of an Analytics account that allows to determine which data will appear in your account. A single property can be used to track one website or mobile app, or be a roll-up of the data from multiple sites or mobile apps. Each property has its own unique tracking code which has to be coped right after the tag on each page of your site. You can have up to 50 properties in one account, which should be more than enough to cover all of your sites and apps. In the property settings you can exclude domains that you don't want to be counted as referral traffic in your reports, change a session duration (by default Google Analytics ends a session after 30 minutes of inaction) or link your AdWords account.

Read this step-by-step guide for setting up your GA account:
https://medium.com/analytics-for-humans/setting-up-google-analytics-correctly-4f564b739d99

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26/03/2018

#10 Mouse tracking

This is the measurement of mouse activity on the computer. The results are presented in the form of video recordings or heatmaps. Mouse tracking is typically used to study users' behaviors or test a working design in order to improve it. Most softwares require a JavaScript snippet code to be implemented into the structure of every page you want to track. It has to be pasted into the tag, so be sure you do it right.
Each recording shows only one session, so it's good to combine mouse tracking with other methods (e.g. Google Analytics). Finding repetitive patterns in users' behavior and confirming them through quantitative research is the way to go! Watching thousands of recordings is tiring and time-consuming, not to say it's pretty risky to only rely on them!

Read more about mouse tracking in UX research:
https://usabilitygeek.com/mouse-tracking-data-visualisation-tool-ux-designers/

# UXTipsforSaaS 🔬

19/03/2018

#9 5-Second test
A method for testing the effectiveness of design solutions. The researcher shows a page to the user for 5 seconds, then the participant has to recall what he/she saw on that page. This test allows you to determine whether a design quickly communicates the intended message or impression.
You can easily find out whether people understand the product quickly, whether it makes a good first impression, and whether the elements of your brand are memorable.
Conducting the 5-second test is quick, cheap, and easy, so you can receive the results almost effortlessly.
However, you have to remember that not all pages can be tested this way (e.g., those with a large amount of written content).
There are many programs that facilitate 5-second testing, but you can do it equipped only with a stopwatch just as well.

Simple guide to 5-second test:
https://usabilityhub.com/guides/five-second-testing

# UXTipsforSaaS 🔬

12/03/2018

#8 Card Sorting
A method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site. The researcher writes the information on a set of cards and the test subject (or a whole group) sorts them to indicate how he or she perceives the structure of and interactions between their contents. In order not to disturb the research, it is a good idea to prepare colorful post-it notes so that they can be easily rearranged.
Remember, however, that presenting too many choices can be tiring for the participants. Providing them with an estimate of how long the card sorting will take can also help to keep their attention and focus.

Here's a short article about card sorting:
https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/card-sorting.html

# UXTipsforSaaS 🔬

05/03/2018

#7 Information architecture
The process of deciding which, where, and how information should be placed on a website or in an application. IA is a crucial part of the UX design process since a well- thought out arrangement of various content elements ensures convenience and usability.
It's a good idea to start with creating a simple text note. It helps to structure all the information you want to include and prioritize it. The main goal of IA is to make the content clear and readable so that the user can find relevant information easily and effortlessly.
After writing, you can create a user-flow using the post-it notes and then start working on wireframes.

Read more about information architecture here:
https://uxplanet.org/information-architecture-basics-for-designers-b5d43df62e20

# UXTipsforSaaS 🔬