Increasing Your Analytics Productivity With UI Improvements
January 24th, 2013 | Published in Google Analytics
We’re always working on making Analytics easier for you to use. Since launching the latest version of Google Analytics (v5), we’ve been collecting qualitative and quantitative feedback from our users in order to improve the experience. Below is a summary of the latest updates. Some you may already be using, but all will be available shortly if you’re not seeing them yet.
Make your dashboards better with new widgets and layout options
Use maps, devices and bar chart widgets in order to create a perfectly tailored dashboard for your audience. Get creative with these and produce, share and export custom dashboards that look exactly how you want with the metrics that matter to you. We have also introduced improvements to customize the layout of your dashboards to better suit individual needs. In addition dashboards now support advanced segments!
Get to your most frequently used reports quicker
You’ll notice we’ve made the sidebar of Google Analytics even more user-friendly, including quick access to your all-important shortcuts:
If you’re not already creating Shortcuts, read more about them and get started today. We have also enabled shortcuts for real-time reports, which allows you to set up a specific region to see its traffic in real-time, for example.
Navigate to recently used reports and profiles quicker with Recent History
Ever browse around Analytics and want to go back to a previous report? Instead of digging for the report, we’ve made it even simpler when you use Recent History.
Improving search functionality
Better Search allows you to search across all reports, shortcuts and dashboards all at once to find what you need.
Keyboard shortcuts
In case you've never seen them, Google Analytics does have some keyboard shortcuts. Be sure you’re using them to move around faster. Here are a few useful ones:
Search: s , / (Access to the quick search list)
Account List: Shift + a (access to the quick account list)
Set date range: d + t (set the date range to today)
On screen guide: Shift + ? (view the complete list of shortcuts)
Easier YoY Date Comparison
The new quick selection option lets you select previous year to prefill date range improving your productivity to conduct year over year analysis.
Export to Excel & Google Docs
Exporting keeps getting better, and now includes native Excel XSLX support and Google Docs:
We hope you find these improvements useful and always feel free to let us know how we can make Analytics even more usable for you to get the information you need to take action faster.
Posted by Nikhil Roy, Google Analytics Team