Harvard has created an analytics dashboard for their Spotlight exhibits using Google Data Studio. Feel free to test out Harvard's dashboard using the instructions below, which also includes instructions and a template for creating your own dashboard--check your institution's patron privacy policies before making a dashboard. Please also feel free to update this page with additional instructions as you test and create your own and/or let us know if you have found other helpful analytics dashboard tools and tips!

You can also view a recording of this dashboard being demoed during the Spotlight community call on 2/8/2019.

Harvard's Analytics Dashboard

Using the dashboard

View the dashboard
Select the desired Spotlight exhibit using the dropdown menu (bottom left in full screen mode, top left in a new tab)
Select the desired date range in the top right (the default is last month). The data will automatically refresh when a new date range is selected

Interacting with Data

The charts on the dashboard pages are interactive, hovering your mouse over them will provide more details. For example, hovering over the 'desktop' slice of the pie chart for 'User Devices' will show both the percentage and number of desktop users. Similarly, hovering over a country in the map will display the country name and number of sessions. You can also scroll and page through the lists of 'Most Visited Pages' and 'Top Search Terms'.

Exporting Data

Depending on the website and date range selected, the following charts often only show a portion of the data in the dashboard:

How are users finding us?
Most Visited Pages
Top Search Terms
The map

Because these charts contain a lot of information, it is easiest to see the full data by exporting it. To export the data:

Hover over anywhere on the chart you wish to export and notice an ellipsis (3 vertical dots) will appear on the top right side of the chart
Click on the ellipsis and select the desired output option

Downloading a Report

The entire report can be exported to a PDF by clicking the 'download report' arrow icon in the top right menu, you'll have the option to select which pages you'd like to download. The PDF is not interactive and will only display what is shown in the dashboard.

Creating Your Own Dashboard

Be sure to check your institution's patron privacy policies before making a dashboard!

If you'd like to create an analytics dashboard like the one above, to help get you started:

Make a copy of this dashboard template
Select your data source (we are using Google Analytics, see Connect to Data for a list of all available sources)
Modify the charts as desired

Setting up Filters

In order to create a dashboard page for each exhibit (like the Exhibit Example page in the template), you'll need to create a filter for each exhibit. To create and apply a filter:

Go to Resource > Manage filters
Edit the Artemas Ward filter with your exhibit name and URL slug. Close the filter window.
Each chart on the Exhibit Example should automatically update with the new filter data

To create a new exhibit page with a new filter:

Duplicate the Exhibit Example page: Go to Page > Duplicate page
Duplicate and edit the filter: Go to Resource > Manage filters > Duplicate, then Edit the filter created above. Close the filter window.
Apply the new filter: Go to Page > Current page settings. In the right menu, remove the previous page filter and add the new one. Note: If you don't see the option to add a page filter, make sure you have a data source selected in the page settings.

Tips & Outstanding Questions

The report can be embedded on a website page by going to File > Embed report
Search terms do not populate automatically and have to first be set up in Google Analytics to track the data. To set this up, see Set up Site Search.
Direct is a bucket Google Analytics uses for unknown sources as well users bookmarking and coming to a site directly. If you are not seeing a known source coming through in your analytics, such as your library website, try adding a UTM parameter (or tag) to the source links. The Campaign URL Builder is a very helpful tool for this.
Ideally, it would have been better to create one dashboard page and enable end-users to select and apply the filter for a particular exhibit in the same way they can with the date range picker. We were unable to find a way to make this work and would love to hear if someone in the community finds a way. Our current solution is quick and easy to set up a new page, but it will be time consuming if we want to make a change to all pages in the future, especially as our exhibit number grows.