Measuring RIA Success

Avinash Kaushik gave an interview to Wendi Malley with the WAA Research Committee back= in October on the use of web analytics to measure the effect of RIA on website success. See http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/en/art/?133. The take home message for me is that the static web page is dead and if we want to measure rich media applications such as ajax or flash based shopping carts, product selectors, booking applications then we need to concentrate on measuring business events. Business events can be measured by placing javascript hooks into applications that log when key tasks have been completed by the users. Using the example of a RIA shopping cart these key business events would be things like submission of shipping details or sucessfully entering credit card payments. The web analytics vendors must be looking a this area but the mean time there may be the need for a lot of customer analysis.