Know your app users with RN + AWS : Introduction

This article explains the reason for taking analytics as an introduction to a set of technical articles related with React Native, AWS ( Amplify, Pinpoint).

I love Analytics and I’m sure that you will be too.

Developers, as me, usually think that our application is amazing, without any error. Obviously, we think that the user will understand it perfectly. Error.

Relax, it’s normal. In the early stages of development, there is not a significant number of users to validate your results. However, that is no excuse for not taking action on the matter. What’s the solution? Analytics.

It is time to meet the user of your application. In this way, you can offer a better experience. You will discover things you did not expect, such as that button that you liked so much is not pressed by anyone. You can check that there are areas of your application that nobody visits. Most importantly, you will get real feedback. It is clear that later you will have to analyze that data, being able to turn that information into a competitive advantage

At KiKi we realized this and and we started to think what we should analyze.
The first approach is to track everything. Error. This is not recommended since you will find yourself with a huge amount of data that you will not be able to handle. In addition, each event registration may have a cost associated with it, so you have to be careful.

You should start with a few, just the basics. Analytics are living beings that evolve. Those that are useful today, may not work for you tomorrow. You have to trust the data. Don’t make the tests show the results you want them to show. If you do, you may fall into Simpson’s paradox.

A good initial strategy may be to track user sessions. Does he login and logout shortly after? Does he visit several screens before leaving? Is there a screen that nobody can access? You must be able to answer all these questions.

Ok, so how can I do that? It depends. There are many tools today, you can choose whatever you want. In this series of articles we will work with AWS,
specifically with Pinpoint. At KiKi we use React Native as a development platform, so this will be the language on which the analytics services will be built. However, it can be useful for any other framework that uses javascript.

May the data be with you.

Article published the 10/15/2020 by Jose Ramon Martinez