Adobe Analytics is a very powerful tool which can be used to track a wide variety of behaviour. However, one of the most common questions from our clients is ‘What can we do to get a better understanding of our users’ link tracking and navigation across our websites?’
Activity Map is a tool that is bundled with Adobe Analytics and provides a solution to this question.
It is a method of visualising device connections on a single page, which can be used to identify and understand patterns of user behavior. The information displayed on an Activity Map is based on data from the eVisitor plugin for Adobe Analytics, and is captured by devices that are set up to send EV data to Adobe Analytics.
The data is then processed by the EVisitor plugin and stored in the Adobe Analytics database. When a user selects a node on an Activity Map, the device connected to that node is highlighted in that colour.
This enables the user to easily identify the devices that are important for the user to investigate further. As the user clicks on the different nodes they are able to see more information about each connection including the number of times the device has been seen, the type of detection associated with that device and its participation status.
In order to start investigating the data within an Activity Map the user must select a device from the left hand side of the screen. Then clicking on the ‘Add path’ button will create a new path from that selected device to another node in the path. This allows the user to build a custom path to investigate specific data.
Each path created on an Activity Map has its own unique layout. Each node in the path is optimised to display specific data and information about the devices that are connected to that node. In addition, the layout of an Activity Map can be changed by selecting the Edit option which opens the underlying Task Properties window for editing.
To view device connections over a particular time interval, you can use the Compare option which shows how the device connections appear in different colors. Devices that have new connections or have changed their protocol activity between the two time intervals are shown in green. Devices that did not change their connection are shown in blue.
If a device is in the path of a Detection Marker it will be highlighted with an animated pulse. The color of this pulse indicates whether the detected device was the offender or the victim. The detection markers also include a link to the Detection Details page for further investigation.
Alternatively, you can use the Filter option which allows you to filter the devices in a step by their group membership. This is useful if you have a large number of devices and want to only view a subset, for example all your test servers. You can also create a custom filter by using the Custom Properties menu.