BADCamp 2018: Unobtrusive User Insights

As site owners, it’s impossible for us to serve our users better without knowing a little bit about them -- what’s working for them, and what isn’t. There are a number of high-impact but unobtrusive ways to learn more about how users interact with your site and your brand. In fact, you might be surprised at the information you can learn about your users with nothing more than Google Analytics.

This talk will expose some touchpoints that can help you learn about your users and how they interact with your site. We’ll discuss tools that move beyond just your analytics platform to help you gain access to these insights, and we’ll walk through some core features of Google Analytics that you may not be aware of.

Watch the Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC2o0QtMkLg

Leaving this session, you’ll have a better understanding of the types of tracking tools, the information you can glean from them, and how to ensure your data tracking is responsible, transparent, and accessible.

Transcript

1. UNOBTRUSIVE USER INSIGHTS Observing your users… without being creepy
2. KATHERINE WHITE Director of Engineering Kanopi Studios @katherinemwhite
3. PHOTO BY LEXIMPHOTO
4. PHOTO BY PHILIPE CAVALCANTE
5. PHOTO BY BERNARD HERMANT PHOTO BY SAMUEL ZELLER PHOTO BY THOUGHT CATALOG
6. USERS EXPECT YOU TO ANTICIPATE THEIR NEEDS.
7. think websites will recognize and adapt to the user to create a unique, optimal experience [within five years]. 37% The Future of Digital Experiences, December 2017
 WP Engine and The Center for Generational Kinetics
8. of Gen Z would stop visiting a website if it didn’t anticipate what they needed, liked or wanted. 50% The Future of Digital Experiences, December 2017
 WP Engine and The Center for Generational Kinetics
9. USERS VALUE SECURITY, AUTHENTICITY, AND TRANSPARENCY.
10. “When it comes to ensuring digital devices and experiences are safe, security is a big concern for every generation... The national study found that two of the top three least liked aspects of the 
 Web are security related.” The Future of Digital Experiences, December 2017
 WP Engine and The Center for Generational Kinetics
11. The Future of Digital Experiences, December 2017
 WP Engine and The Center for Generational Kinetics say that blocking viruses, spyware, etc., would make their digital experience dramatically better 32%
12. say having an easy way to identify untrustworthy websites would vastly improve their experience 9% The Future of Digital Experiences, December 2017
 WP Engine and The Center for Generational Kinetics 1
13. “While security is a concern, the youngest generation is more open to balancing their privacy concerns with the desire for personalized experiences. ... This represents an important shift in mindset around security from a defensive mindset to a growth mindset. The Future of Digital Experiences, December 2017
 WP Engine and The Center for Generational Kinetics
14. SECURITY IS NOT PRIVACY.
15. TRANSPARENCY IS KEY.
16. HOW DO WE LEARN ABOUT USER BEHAVIOR WITHOUT GETTING IN THEIR WAY? PHOTO BY PHILIPE CAVALCANTE
17. GOOGLE TOOLS
18. COOL FACTORS • Free! • Incredibly powerful tools for generating insights • Broad reach • Tools to integrate your data sources
19. CREEP FACTORS • Nothing is actually free… • They can use your content for all their existing and future services • Tracks you on other websites • May use device fingerprinting Source: ToS;DR
20. GOOGLE ANALYTICS
21. USER DEMOGRAPHICS • Analyze traffic based on dimensions such as age, gender, affinity, and in- market segments • Helps identify high-value market segments • Cannot be used with User ID tracking • Integrates with AdWords • Requires updates to your privacy policy
22. CAMPAIGN TRACKING • Track efficacy of inbound campaign traffic • Leverage the Campaign URL Builder to ensure tracking URLs are properly configured • Allows you to segment by campaign, source (where the traffic came from), and medium (the category of the source)
23. CUSTOM DIMENSIONS A customized piece of information about a Google Analytics hit Data must be populated via external means (like Drupal!) Can be assigned a hit, user, or session scope
24. SEGMENTATION • Analyze your audience by any combination of demographics, devices, traffic sources and more • Allows you to craft highly targeted market segments to determine your most valuable users
25. USER ID INTEGRATION • Primarily for cross-device tracking • Requires an a consistent, unique identifier for a user • Cannot contain any PII • MUST be random • There are lots of wrong and creepy ways to use this • May not be used with demographic data views
26. SITE SEARCH LOGGING • Track user search queries on your site • Gives you insights into what content is in demand • Gives you insights into what is difficult to find • There are some native Drupal options to get to this functionality
27. GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE Formerly Google Webmaster Tools Allows access to secure search queries Integrates natively with Google Analytics for more robust organic search analysis
28. GOOGLE TAG MANAGER • A “container” that helps you manage a wide variety of tracking beacons, scripts, and pixels • Deeply integrated with Google Analytics • Gives non-developers a UI for creating their own event tracking and script implementations • Works with non-Google scripts and tracking as well • Saves you the pain of firing multiple tags on a single event, and simplifies your code
29. GOOGLE + DRUPAL
30. GOOGLE ANALYTICS MODULE • Easy way to implement UA Can define custom dimensions and metrics using tokens • Automatically configure link tracking • Provides Google Site Tag support (gtag.js) — required for cross-domain implementations
31. GOOGLE TAG MANAGER MODULE • Can expose and add custom dimensions and values with the dataLayer module • Requires hooking the output using custom code • Search Console verification fails via this method
32. DATALAYER MODULE • Can expose Drupal metadata “out of the box” • Can add custom dimensions and values with the API • Can then configure these values as custom dimensions in Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics
33. HOTJAR Your site as a canvas for user interaction.
34. COOL FACTORS • Free (tier)! • Visualizations of site usage data • Individual session recordings • Surveys, feedback, form and funnel analysis (not covered here)
35. CREEP FACTORS • Not too creepy! • Keystrokes are suppressed for all recordings • Data backups are not kept more than 365 days • GDPR compliant • Users can opt-out on the Hotjar site Source: Privacy By Design
36. HEAT MAPPING Visual representation of user interaction with the site Three types available: clicks, movement, and scrolling
37. SESSION RECORDINGS Recordings of real site visitors Shows clicks, moves, taps, and cross-page navigation
38. HOTJAR + DRUPAL
39. HOTJAR MODULE • https://www.drupal.org/project/hotjar • Recommended approach - use a tag manager
40. PHOTO BY ROB LAUGHTER PUTTING IT TOGETHER (Don’t call it a demo. Demos are scary.)
41. HOW CREEPY ARE YOU? Respecting your users
42. ACCESSIBILITY • Test with screen readers • Test with an ad blocker enabled • Site functionality should not be affected by tracking • Consider performance - track only what you need
43. DATA PRIVACY & POLICIES • Be transparent in what you use and why • Use simple language that is easy to understand • Keep only what you need, only as long as you need it • Give users the option to decline to participate • Make it as easy to get out as it was to get in
44. YOU ARE JUST AS CREEPY 
 AS YOUR PARTNERS. Not all tools created equal, and few things are truly free. Make sure you’ve read the fine print for the tools you are using, and that your policies reflect it.
45. THANK YOU! @katherinemwhite http://bit.ly/badcamp-insights