Workspace:New flow visualization - how users navigate between 2 points

[#1]

Knowing how users get from A to B is a really key analytics use case (e.g. how did users get from a key landing page to the start of an application process?)

The one tool that Analysis Workspace is missing in comparison to Ad Hoc Analysis is the Site Analysis report (Bear with me!!)

The 'site analysis' tool in Ad Hoc Analysis is a fantastic tool for looking at the journeys between 2 points on the site...

Workflow in Ad Hoc Analysis:

• create a visit level Sequential Segment - "Start Page" then "Target/Goal Page"
• apply this new segment to a ranked 'pages' report to find out what the top pages involved in this journey are
• Configure a new "site analysis" report:
  • apply the sequential segment you created earlier
  • take the top X number of pages from the ranked report and add them to the 'site analysis' report (in place of the default pages)
• This should show you the most typical routes to move from the "Start Page" to the "Target/Goal Page"

Why Not Use The 'Flow' Report in Analysis Workspace?

There are 2 huge downsides to the flow report which make it unsuitable:

• It's designed to look at the flow (forwards and backwards) from a single point - not between 2 points
  • this means it continually branches outwards from the single point of the site (i.e. does not aggregate back together at a goal page/end point)
• it shows every single variation as a separate branch which creates a lot of 'noise'
  • In comparison the Site Analysis report allows key pages (or groups of pages) to be configured, any missing pages/steps are ignored allowing you to get a real sense of the flow through the site with out all the noise.

Ideas for a new flow visualization:

The 'Site Analysis' report is very useful when used in this way. However, it does have a few flaws so I wouldn't want to see a direct port of the existing report. In particular...

• the 3D view is unnecessary, I only ever use it in 'plan view' (i.e. 2D top down)
• The configurable axis is a cause the cylinders/nodes to jump about as segments are applied making visual comparisons between segments difficult
• Volumes on the paths/arrows are only displayed in occurrences, it would be nice to be able to switch to visits etc.
• It would be good to limit the data to only the hits that occur between the 2 points

[#2]

Fantastic feedback - we're looking at improving flow, so your comments couldn't have come at a better time. I'll be sure to take this back to the team.

[#3]

Big thumps up for this one! Current flow visualization is very limited, maybe not limited, but exactly containing too much noise. Ability to do simple flows between two pages is crucial.

[#4]

I thought about creating a new idea, but I think it might be better as a comment on this idea. One of the challenges I've always had with flow navigation is "repeating nodes." If it's a page flow, and someone refreshes the page, the page then appears as another step in the branch. That may be technically correct (and desired sometimes), but, if I'm using some other prop where there may be 2-3 pages with the same value, and I want to group those together to make a readable Sankey chart...I'm stuck.

So, I'd love to see an option to "Collapse Repeat Values" or something like that. That would simplify things quite a bit in some cases and actually make the flow navigation useful.

[#5]

In the works! Should be coming out early this year.

[#6]

Just wondered if this was on Adobe's radar at all?

Using Ad hoc to do this used to be my 'go to' answer for those people who'd ask the well meaning but flawed question:

'Can you tell me the top 10 journeys on the site?'

Top 10 Journeys only probably account for 0.00001% of visits (so pretty useless), but what they were really asking was how do users get from 'A' to 'B'.

We could really do with some way to answer this in Analysis Workspace... please