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Putting People First

Thursday November 3, 2005 / 13 Comments

Simple navigation items such as Visitors, Links, Comments, Posts, Browsers, Countries, and Times

One of the trends in software development that I’m really enjoying and incorporating in my own work is a move towards more natural language, making software seem more friendly and less technical, and putting people first.

A perfect example of this is MeasureMap. The language is natural, and there’s no use of technical terms like sessions, hits, referrers, and uniques.

The browser statistics are simple and easy to read as well. It doesn’t break things down by version, but for the purpose of simplicity, this is more than enough for me. However, this makes it clear that MeasureMap isn’t trying to do it all. It’s just a simple user-friendly summary of what’s going on with your site.

Browser share percentage bars.

Instead of just presenting bar charts and numbers. MeasureMap “speaks” to you in normal language that puts things in context. It tells you how many visitors you had and how many of them were new. It doesn’t use more technical terms like hits, uniques, and referrers.

Natural language summarizing how many visitors you had and how many of them were new.

Screen capture of how MeasureMap displays link and visitor information on the dashboard.

As it’s in Alpha, they’re still sorting out Textpattern issues, and I can’t really speak to much more than the interface, but things are very promising. It is clearly focused on blogs, but that focus is one of it’s strengths. By not trying to be everything to everyone, MeasureMap can be everything to it’s target audience, and I have a lot of respect for that.

Summary

The jury is still out on whether or not I personally fall in love with it for everyday use, but I definitely love the approach they’ve taken and wish more applications would do the same. This was one of the few hosted applications I had been eagerly anticipating, and it doesn’t look like I’ll be let down. Combined with Mint, it looks like I’ll finally have all the information I need.

Featured Stuff - Resources: Wireframes & Page Description Diagrames

Omnigraffle and Visio versions of the wireframe templates and stencils I use on all of my projects. There’s even a few examples included for good measure. More about Wireframe & Page Description Diagram Stencils and Templates

Great examples of good design. I’m excited to try the new product out.

One small nitpick for you. The link to Mint is http://haveamint.com not http://mint.com

Great article though, I look forward to hearing more about your experience with measuremap.

Dan

Good article, opened horizons for the possibilities

Joildo Santos

Dan – That’s what happens when you’re in a hurry. :) Sometimes I think faster than I can type. I knew I was going to make that mistake. Thanks.

Garrett

Looks great! I signed up ages ago but I’m still waiting for my invite. Hope I’ll get one soon!

Marco

I’m still waiting for my invite as well, but think that the user-friendliness might be a bit lost on people that prefer the raw numbers (such as Mint spits out). On the other hand, Measure Map might be a great tool for clients who are interested in their visitor traffic.

Nathan Smith

Looks very interesting, it has a simple and friendly vibe about it, which is what alot of people are seeking lately. I signed up for an invite, but from the sound of everyone here.. it may take a while..

lou

Yes, very impressive. I got an email a few days ago updating me on measuremap and I couldn’t wait because of all of its possiblities.

Siddharth Upadhyay

oh sweet christ, i want this.

Phil Renaud

oooh… sweetness… do you have invites to hand out? =D

Jesse J. Anderson

Out of context, it’s hard for me to tell what “that’s the same as an average day” means. I assume that these captures are the stats for one isolated day and we’re comparing it to the site daily average.

Perhaps there is an argument for when language is too naturalized leaving something open for interpretation?

Ro

I had the privilege of having Mr. Veen himself give me a quick demonstration of MeasureMaps and I’d have to say I was in love with it at first sight.

One of the most notably user-friendly interfaces was what they did with visitors from all over the world statistics. The user is presented with an extremely interactive world map that shades the countries in red from light to dark red depending on the amount of visitors. You can set a timeframe dynamically and watch the map change. You could also hover over the countries and it would display relevant statistics for that particular country.

Teevio

MeasureMap is really great and the interface is cool as well. Very friendly. Sure love the cool tracking stats I’m getting. Just hope this isn’t for pay later on. :)

Abe Olandres

I’m waiting for an invite too…

pjdc

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