4 Reasons to Improve Your Application by Tracking Events & Features Usage

Two of the most important data points that every developer should know about their application are the events and features usage. With the help of an analytics platform like DeskMetrics, it’s possible to:

• see all the events and features that exist in a specific application.
• compare the usage of an event or feature in different days.
• compare events or features and find out which of them are the most used.
• get to know how much time an event takes to be concluded or for how long a specific feature is used.

These are important data to understand users’ behavior in order to develop a good application and not waste time and money. So check out some of the reasons to improve your application by tracking events and feature usage with metrics:

1) Base the development of an application on trustful data

Use an analytics platform to understand the users’ behavior better than through a survey or talking to some users. Analytics platforms provide a full profile of all user data and interaction with the product. Developers should base the development of their application on the information that an analytics platform gives them. With broader and more accurate data, the efficacy of their changes is greatly increased.

2) Work on and improve the features that interest more people

With the objective information an analytics platform puts on developers’ hands, it’s possible to find out which features are the most and the least used, and focus development efforts accordingly. It’s always better to work on the features that most people are interested in and that bring more attention to an application. If a developer knows this, he will spend his time on the right features and not spend time or money where it’s not important. When features are under used, use the data you’ve gathered to identify why, and if necessary, consider abandoning them.

3) Don’t make changes that will bother users

Many developers that don’t base their work on metrics when launching new features don’t have any idea whether the features are being used. So, sometimes, a tool that is believed to be useful because of the opinion of just a few users can be very useless to a lot of people who use the application every day. Before removing a feature from an application and risking losing users, consult an analytics platform and get reliable information.

4) Get to know if the application is being used as expected

Using metrics it’s possible to know where users are clicking, which events are happening and how long time people are spend to finish a task. This information can help a developer to find out if the application is being used as expected. If people don’t click where they were supposed to or if they take too long time to do a simple task, it’s possible that there is a usability problem in the software design. Use metrics to understand why this is happening and show results by testing if a layout modification can improve results.

Conclusion

So be aware that metrics can help to develop a better application by using precise information to guide improvements and avoid spending time and money on useless modifications.

How about you? Have you ever made efforts on improving an application based on anecdotal evidence only to find they were not as beneficial as you expected?