Reviewed Showcase App
Polaris - Google Analytics reporting on AIR
April 22nd 2009 | by James
Polaris is one of the first Adobe AIR applications to be built using the recently released Google Analytics API. It’s not built by Google but there is a free single account version or a paid for multiple account option.
There as been the very successful Google Analytics Reporting suite AIR application that was built by the talented Nicholas Lierman by reverse engineering the JavaScript used by the Google Analytics website. This was due to the fact that no API was available for analytics at the time. So now the same guy is behind this product and many more to come all focused on reporting and most probably built using Flex and AIR.
So now we have an API so how does this first AIR application work out? Well not too bad at all, most of the common Google analytics functionality is here including map overlays and charts. See my video review below for a more detailed look.
Video review
Design eye
Polaris has been designed as a desktop widget, so they have kept the footprint quite small. This is a nice idea but they have tried to cram a lot of functionality and data display inside and sometimes it just doesn’t work out.
The colours are striking and I’m not totally in agreement with using white on light green. I would have chosen colours with a better contrast ratio.
The graphs are nice and the animation although standard Flex is welcomed. Some graphical attention to the tool tips would have been nice as the rounded smooth finish of the UI is broken by the square harshness of the standard Flex charting tooltips.
The datagrid table for items like keywords and top content allow you to swap the column order (click and drag), although bizarrely you can’t resize the columns. This makes reading data like page titles quite difficult relying solely upon the tooltips.
Technical eye
As previously mentioned the Polaris Adobe AIR desktop application is built using the new Google Analytics API as well as Adobe AIR and Flex with charting.
In summary
Nice application with some minor UI faults. I think this will be popular with people trying out new desktop clients for Google analytics and the widget form factor might win over the punters.
I can see many AIR apps coming in future months that will create a really compelling user experience for Google Analytics so I think the best is yet to come.
Leave a response, or a trackback from your website.
Your Comments and Views
-
Nicolas Lierman
Thx for the great review!
You’ll be happy to know that I just pushed an update with realizable columns ;)
Other UI improvements will follow soon.Cheers
Nicolas -
James
Thanks Nicolas, great to have the column sizing! Nice app and keep us posted on it’s big brother :-)
James
-
Vadim P.
Hm, agreed, I’d expect the date selector widget to scroll when the mouse is out of range.
Do hope a full-scale app will be out after, I’d be really interested in purchasing it then. For now, mozilla prism app does the trick.
-
Vadim P.
Oh, one thing I applaud is it’s performance – even on a site that had 1.4 mil visitors since the start of this year, it was quite snappy.
-
James
Nice looking application – I think I’ll have to try it out.
Can you make the application open on login I wonder, and does it automatically update when the stats update? – There needs to be something that sets it apart from the Google Analytics itself to make me use it regularily…
-
Harsh Agrawal
This is one of the best adobe air application I have come across. Now I use two adobe air application excessively “tweetdeck” and “Polaris”
It helped me to easily keep track of popular keywords from my blog and I can use them as anchor text to increase ranking.I will highly recommend this application for all the Google analytic user.
Add your comment
The Chart - Top 5
Showcase Tags
- UI (6)
- UX (4)
- analytics (2)
- bbc (3)
- blogging (2)
- children (1)
- designer (24)
- developer (10)
- development (8)
- digg (1)
- ebay (1)
- facebook (3)
- flex (2)
- flickr (9)
- friendfeed (5)
- fun (34)
- games (1)
- google reader (4)
- jaiku (1)
- learning (1)
- maps (2)
- music (9)
- muxtape (1)
- photo (4)
- photography (1)
- pictures (1)
- pownce (2)
- productivity (51)
- prototyping (2)
- rss (4)
- social (11)
- to-do list (4)
- twitter (18)
- us-only (4)
- video (20)
- webcam (1)
- widget (3)
- yahoo (1)
- youtube (8)
A - Z List
View the full list of showcased apps.Upcoming Events
- FlashCamp San Francisco May 29th
-
FlashCamp comes to San Fran on May 29th. So get booked in now for a great line up of sessions and speakers covering many topics.
- FITC Toronto
-
Toronto Canada April 24-27, 2009 The original Flash In The Can location again for 2009 the design and technology festival. Book your tickets now.
- Flash on the Beach 09
-
Back again this legendary UK Flash conference hits its fourth year. 20th - 23rd September 2009 are the dates so get this in your planner now. Tickets on sale from the 18th May so get your early!
Books
Subscribe
Search
Get Adobe AIR
