Marketers are not blessed with the Google Analytics 4 idiosyncratic interface (UI).

In fact, societal media has been inundated with complaints astir the Universal Analytics replacement — but it’s concerns implicit the UI that person been dominating the conversation.

So, is the GA4 UI truly arsenic atrocious arsenic immoderate are claiming? We spoke to 3 integer selling experts to find out.

‘Usability is mediocre – but bent successful there!’

Janet Driscoll Miller, president and CEO of Marketing Mojo, isn’t a instrumentality of GA4’s UI but said “it’s not terrible”. She believes the difficulties that originate are owed to the level being truthful caller and antithetic to Universal Analytics. “I don’t deliberation Google did a precise bully occupation with usability successful the plan of the interface,” she told us.

• The settings and layout aren’t intuitive. “For example, if you make an Explorations report, you indispensable archetypal fundamentally import the dimensions and metrics you’d similar to propulsion from successful the archetypal settings column, past propulsion from those into the 2nd file which creates your information visualization. That’s surely antithetic than UA and not needfully precise wide to caller users.”
• Google needs to marque immoderate tweaks. “I deliberation I talk for astir Google Analytics powerfulness users here, they truly request to adhd backmost the Annotations feature. It was a large UA diagnostic and apt isn’t hard to programme (it’s virtually a enactment and a date) but it was truthful adjuvant to galore of us, particularly erstwhile doing forensic oregon troubleshooting projects and moving with ample teams.”
• Fix the sharing of Explorations reports. “When you presently make and stock an Explorations study with others, you a) cannot bounds who it is specifically shared with and b) those that it is shared with cannot alteration the study day range. Currently for others to alteration a shared report’s day range, the idiosyncratic indispensable marque a transcript of the study truthful that idiosyncratic becomes that caller study copy’s proprietor and past the day tin beryllium altered.”

If you’re struggling to navigate the caller UI, simply support practicing, Miller said.

“The much you go accustomed to however GA4 works, the easier it volition get implicit time,” she said. “Change is hard, but this is present to stay. Before excessively long, we’ll each beryllium overmuch amended with it. Hang successful there!”

‘GA4 lacks basal capabilities — but we’ll get utilized to it’

Independent contractor and advisor, John Erikson, has been feeling progressively frustrated with the GA4 UI. Universal Analytics was much straightforward and easier to navigate, which made elemental tasks, similar creating reports, overmuch easier to transportation out, helium said.

Erikson explained:

• No quality to usage regex successful the hunt box. “You tin lone hunt 1 operation astatine a clip which is precise limiting. The lone mode I could find to filter by URL patterns was to acceptable up Audiences. But Audiences person to beryllium acceptable up successful advance, cannot beryllium edited/changed, and the regex is constricted to 100 characters truthful I had to divided agelong patterns successful to galore chunks to physique audiences.”
• Problems originate if URL structures are tweaked. “If thing changes successful the tract successful URL operation (which is guaranteed to hap galore times successful the future), the assemblage becomes obsolete and nary mode to look backwards.”
• Time-consuming mistakes. “If you marque immoderate mistake successful creating an Audience, you person to discard what you did and make a caller one.”
• Segments/dimensions issues. “On selecting segments/dimensions successful GA4, alternatively of the quality successful Universal to select/deselect 1 oregon much segments successful a azygous database and click apply, you person to unfastened customization oregon adhd comparison, click adhd filter, prime a magnitude from a agelong dropdown, past prime magnitude worth from different dropdown, past use (and you tin lone prime one). Granted it is lone a fewer seconds difference, but erstwhile you look astatine galore antithetic patterns each day, it becomes frustrating to repetition those excess UI moves implicit and implicit erstwhile you utilized to bash it faster.”
• Clumsy design. “That aforesaid dropdown operation is utilized successful creating/editing GA4 reports. The dropdown lists are agelong and it is hard to find what you are looking for.  You tin benignant successful partial names and much rapidly find them erstwhile you cognize them, but initially it is precise hard to scroll done them each and find what you want. Also, you tin lone prime 1 truthful it is hard to look astatine aggregate dimensions/values. I bash find it clumsy to use.”

Despite Erkison’s issues with the caller platform, helium realizes it’s present to enactment and is assured helium volition get utilized to it and adapt.

“It’s conscionable frustrating erstwhile you’ve utilized a strategy that works good for galore years and spot it replaced by a expected betterment that is conscionable harder to usage and lacks specified basal capabilities,” helium added.

Dig deeper: Our Google Analytics 4 sum is here

‘GA4 is missing the simplest functions’

Chris Fox, an autarkic analytics strategist, has besides been experiencing problems with GA4’s UI. He notes that elemental functions that were contiguous successful UA are present either wholly missing oregon are much analyzable and time-consuming to perform. He explained:

“Time Series charts tin lone amusement information astatine the time level and cannot beryllium changed to presumption information astatine a Week/Month level.”

“You person to edit reports to beryllium capable to usage basal dimensions similar Landing Page successful a Traffic report.”

“Segments are gone and alternatively we person ‘Comparisons’, which don’t person preset options and bash not let you to prevention the ‘Comparisons’ you make similar you could with Segments.”

“If you privation to adhd a filter to some dimensions successful a study with a secondary dimension, you cannot bash it successful the array — rather, you person to filter 1 successful the array and the different astatine the report-level astatine the apical of the leafage (or some astatine the report-level).”

“When you edit a study to adhd metrics, you are constricted to 12; truthful I’m often editing a study conscionable to presumption a definite metric and past resetting backmost to the erstwhile configuration.”

“Before, if I wanted to look astatine a visualization of monthly postulation for the past year, I conscionable had to alteration the day granularity successful the enactment illustration connected the Channels study to ‘Monthly.’ To bash that successful GA4, I’d person to download the information and make the illustration myself successful Excel/Tableau/etc.”

Venting his frustrations, Fox told america that these unnecessary, time-wasting changes person made GA4 “feel similar a escaped variation of the afloat merchandise which was Universal Analytics”.

Unfortunately, helium joins a agelong database of marketers that person been making the aforesaid complaints astir the GA4 UI.

Why we care: If capable radical are experiencing the aforesaid problems with GA4 and these issues are past reported to Google, the hunt motor whitethorn reappraisal its merchandise to marque indispensable changes. In the lawsuit it doesn’t, marketers volition beryllium forced to travel up with their ain solutions – and it volition undoubtedly beryllium easier to travel unneurotic successful bid to brainstorm ideas.