Google Analytics is one of the leading analytics software, available for free for websites to use. To make itself more useful, it is adding some new things to create a better user experience.
The first change that is quickly visible, is some visual changes to Google Analytics' interface. On April 19th, 2017, the company announced its plans to give users a new landing page that will show right away after login. Some of the highlights are:
- Snippets from a curated set Google Analytics reports that include real-time data with controls.
- Each snippet is having a helpful question that frames the data, such as "When do your users visit?" or "Where do your users come from?".
- Hovering on any data point will show more details into the relevant report with the provided link on each card.
- "Home" is automatically configured based on the users' setup.
Users can also do some customization to the report, like for example, users with goals or those websites that are made for e-commerce will see a different home page. The home page is also having various widgets that also offer date filters like 'last 7 days' and 'last 30 days. This way, users won't need to dive into each of those reports to get sufficient insights.
This home page is replacing the Audience Overview report which focuses on several metrics that include sessions, unique users, page views and pages per visit and others.
While the home page is replacing all those data, the report can still be accessible by browsing through the Audience tab in Google Analytics' menu.
Google is rolling out the feature "to all users over the next few weeks" after the announcement.
Besides the new home page, Google Analytics is also having a new 'Discover' tab that can be accessed in the menu.
Located at the lower left above the Admin tab, this section is meant to be a place to guide users to things related to Google Analytics products as well as educational materials.
