Users Mind experience with user experience

Usability issues and recommendations for Google Analytics

I have created the blog account and wanted to add this blog URL into Google Analytics, so I login into my account and identify this TWO usability issue with Google Analytics

First Usability Issue – how to add Google Analytics account

Objective was to add my word press account into Google Analytics so that I can see the activity for my blog, this was my second account which I was trying to add into Google Analytics

My 1^st Step was to login into Google Analytics account and now I wanted to add my wordpress blog, I was looking for the option to add account, I've quickly scanned whole page but didn't found anything, I was confuse and was not able to understand that "how to add Google" analytics account.So I have searched on Google and found few people has asked the same questions, I went back into goggle analytics site again and checked now each and every text, buttons, images carefully and BINGO I found the link "+ Add new account"

My 2^nd Step so I have clicked there and afterward flow was fine so I added my account successfully

Usability Issue

The visual and information hierarchy and separation is quite confusing, as first time when I've scanned page to find "Add Account" option I didn't notice the link (marked with red box in above image).Plus the placement of the link is not appropriate as it is part of table header group with Accounts label which is actually a label for the table, and at the right hand side we have a "+ Add new account" link which can be barely identify, as mind reads it as part of table header and not as main action link for the whole page.

Usability Enhancement Recommendations:

1. Remove the first table header (which is in dark gray color with label Accounts) as you have already column headers where you can say "Account Names" so this way you can get rid of unnecessary table header and can reduce the visual conjunction
2. As "+ Add new account" is the primary action for this page / module, so it should be place as input button or image button to increase prominence
3. As well as the placement of the link should be at the top left of the data table and at bottom as well

Second Usability Issue – how to remove Google Analytics account

Well now I have added the my wordpress blog into Google Analytics, but then I suddenly realized that I made a mistake, Hmmm I have added duplicate blog URL as account, and now I have to delete it.

Objective was to delete the added Google Analytics account which I have just recently added

My 1^st Step was to look for a delete option now, so I click on a Google Analytics logo (top left) corner and get the accounts data table again

And as you can see I just have "Edit" option but not the delete so I clicked on a "usersmind.bloggers.com

"My 2^nd Step was to check what is available after clicking on the blog URL from this data table, and Bingo I found what I was looking for as you can see below I have "Delete" option

My 3^rd Step was to click on it and I got this alert massage

So I thought my account is getting deleted now, and I clicked "OK"But then saw this below screen which says "Edit account settings", but didn't find the URL in data table so thought that screen is not yet fully update so click again on the Google Analytics (top left corner) and went back to main page

But surprisingly the blog URL was still part of main data table which contains the list of all Google Analytics accounts, which means my account was not deleted

My 4^th Step was to search on the net for "how to delete Google analytics account" and look what I foundGoogle Search results (1): http://www.pdxtc.com/wpblog/google/why-wont-google-analytics-let-me-remove-accounts/

Google Search results (2): http://blog.techdreams.org/2008/01/removing-my-analytics-account-from.html

And may more post and article which talks the same issue

My 5^th Step after searching from some of the sites, blogs and articles I didn't found anything useful so I clicked on the "Edit" button now

after clicking on "Edit" I came on this below page where I again scanned whole page and boom suddenly I saw "Delete this account" option, wow under edit account I found delete option

I happily clicked on that and I removed unwanted account from my Google Analytics

Usability Issue

The overall information grouping is like "Accounts" are the parent hierarchies and the "Profiles" are the actual accounts (if I am not wrong), so you can create your main account and then under that you can add any number of profiles and they are the actual blog or website URLs from there you can see your site's analysis. So keeping this grouping and tasks in mind I found following issues.

1. Accounts and Profile Add / Edit and Delete interaction design is highly confusing
2. Information and Task grouping is not appropriate, as during adding an accounts it is asking for a profile information and adding Accounts as well as given URL as profile, which to differentiate by users are very tuff
3. Placement of main action buttons / link is inappropriate, as users never going to identify "Delete" under "Edit" link, as main action like Delete should not be expected inside another action itself

Usability Enhancement Recommendations:

1. Adding account and the profiles should be separated, use progressive UI method in case of new account + profile registration
2. Currently the information (data table) for main accounts and profiles under each accounts are the same which should be presented clearly as parent and child grouping
3. Remove Delete Account from Edit function, and edit account should only available for editing the account data and delete option should be separated out on the main data table with each account name

Posted by: Sohel Kapasi | sohelkapasi@gmail.com | +91 9922 79 8899 | +01 860 440 6579