The Key Concepts of App Tracking for Developers 2016

Slides from my talk at Droidcon Krakow 2016.
See also:
- My blog post about app tracking: https://medium.com/@sergii/the-key-concepts-of-app-tracking-for-developers-a11bebf1e65e#
- Github repo with tracking examples:
https://github.com/sergiiz/GroceryStore

More Android stuff:
https://medium.com/@sergii
https://twitter.com/sergiizhuk

Transcript

1. T HE KE Y CO NCE P T S O F AP P T R AC KI NG F O R DE V E L O P E RS S E R G I I Z H U K @ D R O I D C O N K R A K Ó W 0 8 - 1 2 - 2 0 1 6
2. 2 HELLO! My name is Sergii Zhuk • Android Engineer @ Zalando SE • Author of Android Digest for Ukrainian Developers Community • In Berlin since August 2015 • twitter.com/sergiizhuk • medium.com/@sergii
3. 3 ZALANDO SE • Europe’s leading online fashion platform • 11,000+ employees in Europe • ~ EUR 3bn revenue in 2015 • ~ 65% of shop traffic came from mobile • 10M+ downloads Android app
4. 4 AGENDA • What is the app tracking and why do you need it • When to track the data • Which tools you can use • Dev challenges and patterns
5. 5 TRACKING: WHY?
6. 6 TRACKING AND ANALYTICS • Application • Tracking Tools • Analytics Tools & Dashboards
7. 7 WHY TRACKING Do users know about FAB?
8. 8 WHEN TO TRACK
9. 9 WHEN TO TRACK: INTERACTION • Open the app, different entry points • Screen View • Click/swipe etc.
10. 10 WHEN TO TRACK: APPLICATION • User sessions • Application performance • Exceptions, crashes
11. 11 WHEN TO TRACK: APPLICATION • User sessions • Application performance • Exceptions, crashes and bread crumbs
12. 12 TRACK SPECIFIC CASES • Application install/uninstall/reinstall • System and account information
13. 13 TRACKING TOOLS
14. 14 TRACKING TOOLS Rank Company Market share 1 Google Analytics 91.58% 2 Flurry 4.81% 3 Umeng 1.11% 4 Crashlytics 0.61% 5 Localytics 0.34% 6 Mixpanel 0.30% 7 HockeyApp 0.23% Source: “Mobile App Analytics: What Winning Mobile Developers Use” by John Koetsier. December 2015. Firebase Analytics wasn’t released yet.
15. 15 TRACKING TOOLS Flurry • One of the oldest tracking tools • The market leader for iOS • Mobile-only • Acquired by Yahoo in 2014 • Free
16. 16 TRACKING TOOLS Google Analytics • Mobile & Web • Free for not high load projects • Google BigQuery available for enterprise projects • No significant mobile SDK updates since the end of 2015
17. 17 TRACKING TOOLS Firebase Analytics • Mobile only • Active development, new features are coming • Free, but limited amount of custom types can be tracked • Google BigQuery available • Does not officially support devices without Play Services
18. 18 TRACKING TOOLS Self-made solutions • Custom data formats • Integration with other systems for input & output • Realtime data (complex!)
19. 19 PATTERNS & CHALLENGES
20. 20 SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TOOLS • Most of tools don’t send the data immediately, but collect it in batches • Usually you won’t be able to see the data at the dashboard immediately even if it was sent • Usually documentation is poor and doesn’t suggest any design patterns.
21. 21 EXPECT TRACKING REQUIREMENTS TO COME • Expect tracking requirements to come from the beginning • Estimate initial release to include tracking implementation
22. 22 BE READY TO SCALE • Design architecture to expect 2nd, 3rd and N+1 tracking tool to be integrated • Isolate the tracking logic from the UI
23. 23 BE READY TO SCALE: TRACKING FACADE
24. 24 CHECK TRACKING PERFORMANCE • Check batching configuration • Minimize the amount of data being sent • Make sure you have a separate token/configuration for debug
25. 25 DEFINE TRACKING STANDARDS • Dev and Marketing teams should never be “blind” • Define minimum amount of tracking events every feature should have (screen view, click etc.) • Define proper constants to indicate empty value
26. 26 CUSTOMER PRIVACY • Make sure you don’t send data that allows to identify the user • Make sure you mask the IP of user • Make sure that user has an option to switch off tracking
27. 27 CUSTOMER PRIVACY • Make sure you don’t send data that allows to identify the user • Make sure you mask the IP of user • Make sure that user has an option to switch off tracking • Why the most of tracking tools are free?
28. 28 HOW TO TEST TRACKING OUTPUT
30. 30 TRACKING OUTPUT: PRINT LOGS • Slows down the app • Hard to read • Not always consistent with data being sent to the server (data enriching) • Not available for the release app build
31. 31 TRACKING OUTPUT: PROXY NETWORK TRAFFIC
32. 32 TRACKING OUTPUT: FIREBASE DEBUGVIEW
33. 33 DEMO
34. 34 TRACKING DEMO • Demo app with three tracking tools configured • Google Analytics, Firebase, Flurry • Details on how to setup proper accounts • And proxy to debug the output https://github.com/sergiiz/GroceryStore
35. 35 CONCLUSION • Collect meaningful data to take decisions • Check cross-platform availability for your tracking tools • Be ready to scale • Respect customer privacy
36. 36 THANKS! • tech.zalando.com/jobs • @sergiizhuk • medium.com/@sergii