In the previous post, we discussed the challenges of UI/UX research in GUI product development and gave a brief introduction to Qt Insight. In this article, let's sign up for a free trial of Qt Insight and see what kind of data is available!
Contents
- Sign up for Qt Insight
- Data available on Qt Insight
- Average session length
- Device use interval
- New devices
- Most used interactions
- Device count
- Software version
- Most used screens
- Top times by usage
- Devices by country
- Device consecutive use
- Shutdown success rate and Application failure rate
- Screens that have the most application failures
- Interactions that lead to application failures
- Other indicators of abnormal termination
- Hardware and operating system
- Summary
Sign Up
First, search for "Qt Insight Trial" in your favorite search engine. You will then see the free trial page. Once on the page, you should see a screen similar to the one below. Click the "Try Qt Insight" button to proceed.
After clicking the trial button, you will see the following page. Click on "Create my own organization" to proceed.
The Qt insight Service Evaluation Agreement will then appear as shown below. Review the contents and click "Agree and Continue".
On the next screen, you will be asked to enter an organization name. An organization is a unit that can hold data from multiple applications and their versions. A possible organization name could be, for example, a name that refers to a specific product.
Here we will simply use "For Testing". After entering the name, click "Create and start your free trial".
Once the organization is created, the following screen will appear. Press "Continue" to start using Qt Insight!
Do you see the following dashboard screen? Now let's take a look at what kind of data Qt Insight displays in turn!
Data available on Qt Insight
We will now review the data available on the dashboard as of Qt Insight version 1.5.0, using a demo organization. Before we begin, a brief explanation of how Qt Insight works is in order. Without this explanation, you may find it a bit confusing.
Qt Insight consists of the following architecture.
Data analysis with Qt Insight starts with inserting the Qt Insight tracker API into an app implemented in Qt. This tracker API can be inserted to trigger a call to user actions such as screen transitions or button clicks to send user app usage data to the cloud.
Qt Insight basically aggregates data in a cloud environment managed by The Qt Company, but there is also a "private cloud" option where the Qt Insight backend is installed in the user's cloud environment.
The Tracker API is explained in another blog post - Qt Insight Basics Part 6: Sending Data to Qt Insight.
The data sent to the cloud will be anonymized and then displayed in the dashboard we are currently viewing (the Qt Insight Web Console). The connection between the dashboard page and the application is done by a token issued from the dashboard. This will also be explained in detail in the article explaining how to use the Tracker API.
Now, let's switch the display to the demo organization and see what information is available! Click the name of the organization you see on the left, and you will see a menu like the one below.
In the menu, click on the organization called "Demo organization".
You will then see a page with pre-populated data for demonstration purposes, as shown below. The data you see now is the Dashboard. First, let's look at the data you can see here.
Before viewing the data, click on "Select meters" in the upper right corner of the screen and pick "Select All" from the list. This will allow you to view all data.
Average session length
The data you see in the upper right corner of the screen is "Average session length". This means the average amount of time a user spends in a session.
In the example below, we see that the user spends an average of 9 minutes and 4 seconds per session. By "session" we mean the sequence of events through which a user uses an application.
Device use interval
To the right of it is the "Device use interval". This data shows the average time interval that users use the device, i.e., information about how often the application is used.
In the example below, we see that this application is used approximately once in 3 days.
New devices
To the right is "New devices". This shows the number of new devices added during the specified period. This number gives an indication of the increase or decrease in the number of users.
The time period can be changed using the filter at the top of the Dashboard.
In the example below, when the period is set to "last week," we see that the number of devices decreased by 1639 (the red graph means bad results), which is a 47.8% decrease compared to the previous week.
Most used interactions
"Most used interactions" literally ranks the types of user actions most used by users by the number of times they were used.
In the example below, we can see that the button called "brew-me-a-cup-button" is the most used, followed closely by the "espresso-button".
Device count
"Device count" is the number of devices. Like other numbers, it can be filtered to see the number of active devices in a specific timeframe, device model, or region.
In the example below, you can see that the number of devices is 23 when "Japan" is set as the country.
If the filter does not display correctly, please reload the page.
Software version
Next is the software version. This shows the software versions in use and their percentages. In the example below, we see can that versions 1.0.0, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3 are each used approximately 33%. This data provides insight into whether the transition to new versions is proceeding smoothly.
Most used screens
Qt Insight allows you to see not only the most used user operations, but also the most used screens.
More detailed data can be viewed by hovering the mouse over the graph area.
In the example below, we can see that the "coffee-selection-screen" is the most used screen, with a total of 153,727 uses.
This data can be used to find screens with extremely high or low frequency of display, allowing us to "test" in a sense whether or not this is the intention of the creators of the site.
Top times by usage
Under "Top times by usage," you can see which days of the week and times of the day users use the application the most.
In the example below, we can see that users tend to use the application more on Monday nights. By filtering by country, for example, we may be able to find different characteristics of user behavior in different regions.
Devices by country
Under "Devices by country," you can see the number of active devices per country.
In the example below, we can see that Germany has the highest number of devices in use with 17,583 devices. Prioritizing the development of features for the most popular countries, for example, can yield a high return on investment. Conversely, countries with low retention may indicate that the GUI does not fit the culture.
Device consecutive use
"Device consecutive use" displays the number of devices in continuous use during the timeframe selected in the filter.
For example, if we set the time filter to "last week" as shown below, we have 524 devices that were used last week and are still in use this week (37.20% less than the number of devices that were used last week and were still in use the week before).
We can also get the information that on Saturday, October 28, 2023, the number of devices that have been in continuous use since October 27 is 130. This could be useful, for example, to get information about how much users like and use the application.
Shutdown success rate and Application failure rate
"Shutdown success rate" and "Application failure rate" indicate the percentage of normal and abnormal application terminations, respectively. The sum of these figures is 100%.
Screens that have the most application failures
The "Screens that have the most application failures" section allows you to rank the screens that have the most application failures and the number of times they have occurred, helping you to identify the cause of application crashes.
Interactions that lead to application failures
Qt Insight allows you to check not only the screen that led to the abnormal termination, but also the number and ranking of user operations that led to the abnormal termination. In the following example, it can be seen that the abnormal termination occurred after the user operated the latte button in particular.
Even in cases where abnormal termination occurs irregularly and is difficult to reproduce, this kind of data may help to quickly identify the cause.
Other indicators of abnormal termination
"Number of application failures" means the number of times an application terminated abnormally. "Devices with application failures rate" and "Devices with application failures" literally mean the percentage of devices whose applications terminated abnormally and the number of devices whose applications terminated abnormally.
For example, if these numbers drop after a modification that may have caused the abnormal termination, you may be able to consider that the modification was appropriate.
Hardware and operating system information
In addition to the above, Qt Insight also provides information about hardware and operating systems, such as CPU and kernel types and versions, and operating system types and versions.
Summary
As expected, explaining the dashboard took up a lot of space. This is the end of this blog, and we will continue with the introduction of "User Flow" in the next issue.
What did you think of the Dashboard features? If you have any suggestions, such as improvements, parts that are difficult to understand, or additional types of information you would like to analyze, please do not hesitate to write them in the comments section. This will provide immediate feedback to R&D to help them improve the product.
Articles in this series
- Qt Insight Basics Part 1: Visualizing User Behavior for Optimal Product Design
- Qt Insight Basics Part 2: Getting Started 1 - Free Trial Registration
- Qt Insight Basics Part 3: Getting Started 2 - Analyzing User Flows
- Qt Insight Basics Part 4: Getting Started 3 - Funnel Analysis and Crash Analysis
- Qt Insight Basics Part 5: A/B Testing in Embedded Apps - User Behavior Analysis
- Qt Insight Basics Part 6: Sending Data to Qt Insight
