Context
Sement.io now https://segment.com/ is a highly popular way of "routing" your analytics data/events to various service to several services including Google Analytics, MixPanel, Facebook Ads, etc.
Many people (projects/teams/organisations) use Analytics.js from Segment.io:
https://github.com/segmentio/analytics.js because it allows you to write code once.
Why?
Q: Why should we attempt to match the format of events & function invocation from analytics.js?
A: Because if we make our events compatible with analytics.js we can eliminate any (technical) objection to adoption/usage and minimise the "friction" to switching.
We want to make a dramatically simplified Analytics UX that (digital) Product Owners will actually look at and use to be more "data driven".
Our experience of working with a many (70+) Web Product Owners over the past 17 years
building web sites and Sites/Apps - ranging from basic single-page apps to global multi-lingual billions-in-revenue e-commerce mega projects and everything in between - has taught us a lot about how people actually use (but most often fail to use) analytics to drive business decisions.
Most projects/apps have Google Analytics and a few even use Segment.com or MixPanel,
but in our experience there is no habit of consulting the data (insights) during daily stand-ups, feature/backlog/sprint planning meetings or Demos.
We feel this a crying shame. 😢
Because it means that:
a) the team (devs, designers, PO) isn't focussing on
- what works ✅,
- what's "broken" 💔 and
- how to delight users.😍
b) users are almost invariably getting a worse experience that only meets some of their needs
c) the "wrong" thing is being built. e.g: more features built when users needs fewer better ones.
d) everyone's time is being wasted! ⏳
What?
A distillation of analytics.js down to the bare essentials.
So that we can build/use just (exactly) what we need.
Who?
The ideal person to do this work is someone who has used analytics.js a few times in "production".
I (Nelson) have only used analytics.js once (despite having used GA/GTM many times).
Thankfully if we build something useful and "Show HN",
we will get enough feedback from the community to "steer" us.
How? (#TODO)
Context
Sement.io now https://segment.com/ is a highly popular way of "routing" your analytics data/events to various service to several services including Google Analytics, MixPanel, Facebook Ads, etc.
Many people (projects/teams/organisations) use
Analytics.jsfrom Segment.io:https://github.com/segmentio/analytics.js because it allows you to write code once.
Why?
Q: Why should we attempt to match the format of events & function invocation from
analytics.js?A: Because if we make our events compatible with
analytics.jswe can eliminate any (technical) objection to adoption/usage and minimise the "friction" to switching.We want to make a dramatically simplified Analytics UX that (digital) Product Owners will actually look at and use to be more "data driven".
What?
A distillation of
analytics.jsdown to the bare essentials.So that we can build/use just (exactly) what we need.
Who?
The ideal person to do this work is someone who has used
analytics.jsa few times in "production".I (Nelson) have only used
analytics.jsonce (despite having used GA/GTM many times).Thankfully if we build something useful and "Show HN",
we will get enough feedback from the community to "steer" us.
How? (
#TODO)Go through the API https://segment.com/docs/sources/website/analytics.js with a "beginners mind" (but factoring our experience of building many apps) and summarise how to use it.
Build a Prototype Application that Demonstrates Logging Analytics Events using:
PureScript) for the client component.Attempt to create a "framework" that treats all data updates as analytics events.
such that when a user submits a form, we don't need to log the event twice;
the submission is the event! (i.e. the analytics needs to be "full stack". both an API and a module.)