Why folks hate the Google Analytics 4 person interface

Entrepreneurs aren’t pleased with the Google Analytics 4 person interface (UI).

The truth is, social media has been inundated with complaints in regards to the Common Analytics alternative – but it surely’s considerations over the UI which were dominating the dialog.

So, is the GA4 UI actually as dangerous as some are claiming? We spoke to 3 digital advertising and marketing consultants to search out out…

‘Usability is poor – however cling in there!’

Janet Driscoll Miller, president and CEO of Advertising Mojo, isn’t a fan of GA4’s UI however stated “it’s not horrible”. She believes the difficulties that come up are due tot he platform being so new and totally different to Common Analytics. “I don’t suppose Google did an excellent job with usability within the design of the interface,” she tells Search Engine Land.

• The settings and structure aren’t intuitive – “For instance, for those who create an Explorations report, you could first primarily import the size and metrics you’d like to tug from within the first settings column, then pull from these into the second column which creates your information visualization. That’s definitely totally different than UA and never essentially very clear to new customers.”
• Google must make some tweaks – “I feel I converse for many Google Analytics energy customers right here, they really want so as to add again the Annotations characteristic. It was an amazing UA characteristic and certain isn’t tough to program (it’s actually a observe and a date) but it surely was so useful to many people, particularly when doing forensic or troubleshooting initiatives and dealing with giant groups.”
• Repair the sharing of Explorations studies – “If you presently create and share an Explorations report with others, you a) can’t restrict who it’s particularly shared with and b) those who it’s shared with can’t change the report date vary. Presently for others to vary a shared report’s date vary, the person should make a replica of the report in order that person turns into that new report copy’s proprietor after which the date could be altered.”

Should you’re struggling to navigate the brand new UI, merely preserve training, Miller stated.

“The extra you grow to be accustomed to how GA4 works, the better it’s going to recover from time,” she stated. “Change is difficult, however that is right here to remain. Earlier than too lengthy, we’ll all be significantly better with it. Cling in there!”

‘GA4 lacks primary capabilities – however we’ll get used to it’

Impartial contractor and advisor, John Erikson, has been feeling more and more annoyed with the GA4 UI. Common Analytics was extra easy and simpler to navigate, which made easy duties, like creating studies, a lot simpler to hold out, he stated.

Erikson defined:

• No potential to make use of regex within the search field: “You’ll be able to solely search one phrase at a time which may be very limiting. The one approach I may discover to filter by URL patterns was to arrange Audiences. However Audiences must be arrange upfront, can’t be edited/modified, and the regex is restricted to 100 characters so I needed to cut up lengthy patterns in to many chunks to construct audiences.”
• Issues come up if URL constructions are tweaked: “If something modifications within the website in URL construction (which is assured to occur many occasions sooner or later), the viewers turns into out of date and no technique to look backwards.”
• Time-consuming errors: “Should you make any mistake in creating an Viewers, it’s important to discard what you probably did and create a brand new one.”
• Segments/dimensions points: “On deciding on segments/dimensions in GA4, as an alternative of the flexibility in Common to pick/deselect a number of segments in a single record and click on apply, it’s important to open customization or add comparability, click on add filter, choose a dimension from a protracted dropdown, then choose dimension worth from one other dropdown, then apply (and you may solely choose one). Granted it’s just a few seconds distinction, however while you take a look at many various patterns daily, it turns into irritating to repeat these extra UI strikes again and again while you used to do it quicker.”
• Clumsy design: “That very same dropdown construction is utilized in creating/modifying GA4 studies. The dropdown lists are lengthy and it’s onerous to search out what you might be on the lookout for.  You’ll be able to kind in partial names and extra shortly discover them as soon as you understand them, however initially it is rather onerous to scroll via all of them and discover what you need. Additionally, you possibly can solely choose one so it’s onerous to take a look at a number of dimensions/values. I do discover it clumsy to make use of.”

Regardless of Erkison’s points with the brand new platform, he realizes it’s right here to remain and is assured he’ll get used to it and adapt.

“It’s simply irritating while you’ve used a system that works nicely for a few years and see it changed by a supposed enchancment that’s simply more durable to make use of and lacks such primary capabilities,” he added

‘GA4 is lacking the only features’

Chris Fox, unbiased analytics strategist, has additionally been experiencing issues with GA4’s UI. He notes that straightforward features that had been current in UA at the moment are both fully lacking or are extra difficult and time-consuming to carry out. He defined:

• “Time Collection charts can solely present information on the day stage and can’t be modified to view information at a Week/Month stage.”
• “It’s important to edit studies to have the ability to use primary dimensions like Touchdown Web page in a Site visitors report.”
• “Segments are gone and as an alternative we now have ‘Comparisons’, which don’t have preset choices and don’t assist you to save the ‘Comparisons’ you create like you can with Segments.”
• “If you wish to add a filter to each dimensions in a report with a secondary dimension, you can not do it within the desk — moderately, it’s important to filter one within the desk and the opposite on the report-level on the prime of the web page (or each on the report-level).”
• “If you edit a report so as to add metrics, you might be restricted to 12; so I’m typically modifying a report simply to view a sure metric after which resetting again to the earlier configuration.”
• “Earlier than, if I needed to take a look at a visualization of month-to-month visitors for the final 12 months, I simply needed to change the date granularity within the line chart on the Channels report back to ‘Month-to-month.’ To do this in GA4, I’d must obtain the info and create the chart myself in Excel/Tableau/and many others.”

Venting his frustrations, Fox instructed Search Engine Land that these pointless, time-wasting modifications have made GA4 “really feel like a free version of the complete product which was Common Analytics”.

Sadly, he joins a protracted record of entrepreneurs which were making the identical complaints in regards to the GA4 UI.

Why we care: If sufficient persons are experiencing the identical issues with GA4 and these points are then reported to Google, the search engine could evaluate its product to make vital modifications. Within the occasion it does not, entrepreneurs will probably be compelled to provide you with their very own options – and it’ll undoubtedly be simpler to come back collectively with a view to brainstorm concepts.

Deep dive. For extra info on how one can migrate to GA4, learn Google’s ‘Discover ways to make the swap‘ information.