Sexy Stats
You may have noticed a change to your stat charts a couple of weeks ago. We ditched Flash in place of a more robust charting library called Flot. If you didn’t notice, go check it out because you can view all of the new charts with modern browsers including mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad. Sooo sexy! Today we updated the charts to use bars instead of points and lines. We’ve also made the stats page super sexy.
Each module can be opened and closed, moved, or hidden completely. If you don’t want to see a module, minimize it with one click or use the Screen Options to keep it out of sight. Customize everything and view stats the way you want to.
As you hover over each bar in the chart it changes color and displays a tooltip, giving you more information about the data. If the chart is showing data by day, Saturdays and Sundays have a light gray background to make it easier to see weekly patterns. Under the chart you’ll notice a new area, called “fortune cookies,” where we’ll highlight key stats.
During the redesign we went with bar charts because the end of one day and the beginning of another shouldn’t be connected. Each day starts at zero and we think bar charts work much better for this type of data. We hope you’ll agree once you get used to the change.
In this first phase of the stats redesign we’ve focused on the main page. This will allow us to collect feedback from you so we can tweak everything as we go. We’ve only mentioned a few of the highlights here, so take your stats for a drive around town to get used to the feel. Let us know what you like and what you might change. As we gather feedback we’ll apply a bit of sexy to the other stat pages.
Sites using our Stats plugin on a self-hosted blog will see an update after we iterate on the new design.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
This is definitely going to take some getting used to. But thank you for your constant efforts to make our blogging experience better!
September 30th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I like the old blog stat page better.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Not bad, still getting used to it.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
I have noticed a change to my stat charts today.
Sooo sexy! The stats page super sexy. Thank you so much, I love it.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Looks great. Streamlined and more professional looking. Keep the great benefits coming!
September 30th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Hey, love the new stats page!
September 30th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
I hate to sound ungrateful but I do wish you good folk would stop fiddling with things that worked perfectly well. More information, like something to tell me how many visits come from feedreaders, how many from direct hits, etc, more analysis of stats, that would be great. But this just changes stuff for the sake of it and I much preferred both the line graph and the font size of referrers and pages. It’s all a bit busy and teeny and hovering over bars is such a frustrating way of getting information. Sorry.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Very nice. This is *much* better than Flash based solution, thank you for sharing! I had also bookmarked http://www.highcharts.com for a Piwigo plugin. Piwigo currently displays statistics with pure HTML/CSS bar graph.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Thank God you did! I remember how pissed off I was after seeing that ugly new graph! I wrote about it here http://thedolt.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/wordpress-gets-a-new-stats-graph/
September 30th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
I’m so glad that you’ve decided to redesign the stats pages. If I may make a suggestion, one thing I’ve always wanted is to be able to see every post that was viewed on a given day.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Click the View all link in the Top Posts & Pages area and you’ll be able to see daily items there.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Yep, it feels kindda sexy. LOL.
Just notice the change of the stats graph and like it.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
I have always been of the opinion that when it comes to blog hits, bar graphs are the way to go, since they show more discretely the interval based break up of stats. I am pleasantly surprised and tremendously gladdened to see this change. I am sure the people having trouble adjusting to the new graph will soon see why this is so much better!
Keep rocking!
Its time to hit the bar!
September 30th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
I too like the bar charts better than the line graph, gives a better visual picture. Overall I like the visual upgrade looks sleek. The only downside is looking at my actual stats compared to yours…
Keep up the great works guys/gals.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
The data may be “sexy” but the new design isn’t. It’s boxy and uninviting. Of course, I have more of an artist’s sensibility than a business person’s, so those who really get into spreadsheets (the user-unfriendly Excel and the like) probably find this easier to read and more like what they’re used to. I’ll learn to use it because I’m obviously stuck with it, but I can’t see ever getting what’s sexy about it.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
I loved the points and lines…
September 30th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Nice!
I like the new bar charts better. Not sure about the sexy part though but we all have our fetish.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I already like the bar chart much better. Very nice!
September 30th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I like the new chart. It seems that my stats view was not working for the last couple of weeks as you made these changes. It is nice to see a chart again and mine had disappeared. The more detail the better. I like it.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I LOVE the new change! It loads soooo much faster on my Amazon Kindle than it used to. I love the organized aspect. There’s one thing I don’t like about the new change, and that’s the bars. I HATE the change from the line graph to the bars! They’re sooo much harder to read! It’s harder for me to see the progression of views over time! PLEASE CHANGE THAT BACK!
September 30th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Slicker than snot on a door knob! I love it! Thanks tons.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
That stats widget is from dinosaur age. Anyways, it was just a suggestion to improve something for the blog visitors as well since there have been many improvements for blog users. Thanks.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
You need to check your language support again. The “old new stats” didn’t work for me at first, because I use Norwegian interface. In a few days you fixed it. Now you’ve changed the stats interface again, and again it does not work properly with Norwegian interface language. The tabs does not work at all if they contain a Norwegian character like ø and å. If I change to English they work fine. I don’t understand why this continues to be an issue.
Other than that I think I like the new stats.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
This has been fixed.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
DISLIKE!!
Am I the only one who prefers the shaded-in line graph? So much easier and more fluid to see your progress.
Is there any way of us individually having the option to set it as a bar graph or line graph?? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, give US the option as to how we want it charted!!!
Here’s hoping…
September 30th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Very nice! Thanks! Glad WP is always working on the look!
How about adding a toggle to enable user display choice of different charts: line, bar, dot, etc?
Thanks for all your hard work, care and attention to the platform.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Yes the stats page is sexier
rawr!
September 30th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Makes it a lot easier to see information.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Looks great. Now we only have to wait for visitors
September 30th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Whoa! I’m liking these new stats. For this change, I’ll give you a bi ‘ole Scottie AAARrrrOOOOOOO!
September 30th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
I found the older graph easier to read trends from, but I can adapt to either way. The Flash-free chart is nicer for my antique computer (Linux really extends the useful life of marginal computers)
September 30th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Magnifico! Don’t stop now, boys and girls!
September 30th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
While I did like the lines better than the bars, I don’t mind the change too much. I do love that the statistics from the previous day are in handy little tabs now, which makes things look a lot cleaner. Overall, a net positive.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Don’t like that I can’t click on the current day’s bar. There are views for the blog for today, but the bar doesn’t highlight like the rest of them do. I even tried rebooting, and also on another computer
September 30th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Should be fixed for IE7.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
I don’t like it at all.
Bar graphs have a differnet meaning compared to points and lines. They don’t show trends for example.
In my opinion it was a bad idea. At least give us the choice to choose between the two!
September 30th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Personally, I liked the graphs, but it’s no big deal. However, I can’t find the information about who has subscribed to my blog – only the blogs that I subscribe to. Can you tell me where to find that now?
September 30th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Check out the Subscriptions tab in the General module.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
I pretty much ignored the lines in the old format and looked at the points. I agree with Mike. Given time people who preferred the old will embrace the new. There really is more info provided. Thank you. My one concern was info on subscriptions, but I found that too. Great job!
September 30th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Hey WordPress – GREAT facelift.
With heartfelt sincerity, I appreciate all the work you guys do at WordPress. Don’t know if people tell you, but you really boost the lives of writers. It used to be such a lonely affair! Now there’s a social and growth opportunity with other writers who are very talented but who are loathe to enter the publishing ‘machinations’. This would not be available without a service such as the one you have created. (Oh, I realize we would find other techie supports, but yours is excellent.) This is not a SMALL contribution, guys! It’s huge and I really am grateful.
On a broader scale, your site is a step toward the transformation of this planet and I’m not flattering you. The fact that you are able to offer this incredible service for free is critical. So many great artists have been unexpressed and invisible due to lack of exposure. Because we are here, this level of positive energy “getting out there” now is phenomenal. This is a “portal for positive”.
Bravo and don’t forget to collect the spiritual gems that are waiting for you. Just feel them and they’ll appear.
Promise!
A fan (in case you didn’t notice)
September 30th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
I agree the font is too small.
I don’t like that you have to click on 8 boxes to see yesterdays stats. very often, I want to see what happened yesterday when I check in the morning, and today is not yet finished.
Is there any way that syndicated reads will ever be folded into the general stats results?
I appreciate the work you guys do, but sometimes if something isn’t broken, it doesn’t need fixing. What exactly was the problem with the old stats that made this a priority to work on? I don’t find it sexy nor did I find the old stats page unsexy. When it comes to the backend (heh) of a blog, sexy is not really relevant, usability is, and now I am squinting and clicking a lot more. Not sexy.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Your new chart is awful! Mine does not have any of the features you glowingly described. I can’t click on any day to see any of the data that I used to get to. It would be better if you could give us the choice of which way we’d prefer to see the chart. You’ve made a terrible change and I for one would prefer it to be changed back.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
The hover-over part is not working — it works for the first half (left side) of the bars on the chart, but the most current (right side) bars show nothing when I hover. And I’m really, really good at hovering.
Anyone else having the same problem?
September 30th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
There is a bug with the right half of the charts in IE 7. We are working on a fix.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Well, its a significant improvement on that interim one with the ugly mountains but I’m still not impressed. Much preferred the old version. And as for that “because the end of one day and the beginning of another shouldn’t be connected” nonsense, of course they’re connected. In the real world one day follows another seamlessly and there’s nothing wrong with replicating that in a conventional graph view. Moreover, to my mind the conventional graph view gives a much better “at a glance” sense of patterns over time than this bar chart business.
No, definitely not impressed.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Wow. And I thought my page views were impressive.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Apparently I’m the anomaly. I MUCH prefer the line graphs–it’s so much easier to see the pattern of highs and lows with a line. But, my BIG criticism is the use of the Today/Yesterday tabs. I’m a usability freak, and making people click tabs every time they want to see something is insane. It was so much easier with the old system, ’cause I could just see yesterday’s and today’s stats at a glance, without having to do all the tab clicking.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Super cool! I can’t wait to check mine out
!
September 30th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Ugh. I really wish you would reconsider providing an option to change back to line charts.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
You didn’t fix the worst problem with the chart, which is that it includes a data point for today. Today is not over, so it always looks like my traffic dropped way off today. That last point is guaranteed to be wrong. It does not belong on the chart. Take it off.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Bars or lines are the same to me, but what I don’t like is the new General Module: I will miss checking by a glance if my blog got some new subscribers or sharings… Tabs are not that sexy to me
September 30th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Please, give me back to old style !!!
))
September 30th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
So it’s NOT just me who uses the word “sexy” when describing things that are beyond cool.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Do not like the bar charts at all… The lines were much nicer.
I wish we can get an option to choose if we want lines or bars.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Thank you… It looks nice and clean… but the only think is that I have to click on tabs now to check on suscriptions…shares…today vs yesterday… But no biggie… Thank you anyway for your work, you are always trying to improve
September 30th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Aweeeesome! Could we have the option to switch between bars and a line? (Okay, either one is sexy. No complaints, really.)
September 30th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Ditching flash is a great idea! The bars take some getting used to, but, at least in theory, bars do make more sense than connected dots and lines.
September 30th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
These new stats are super sexy! Thanks!
September 30th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
“If you didn’t notice, go check it out because you can view all of the new charts with modern browsers including mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad.”
I really dig the new ‘sexy’ look! It would be nice if I could see the charts when using my BlackBerry’s web browser though…just a suggestion and a bit of feedback
September 30th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Wow now if I can just get my stats up.thanks:)
September 30th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
I’m in the “I like everything but the bars” camp. I feel the shaded line graph showed a more connected growth/decline progression. The bars are disconnected.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I like this update a whole lot. But what is that “Humanize” tab?
September 30th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Go to your personal settings and turn on “Surprise Me.”
September 30th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
I like this new stats page. It is coooooooool! Thanks a lot, WordPress!
September 30th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Yes, so sexy stats. I was thoroughly excited when I saw this. I use an iPad to check my stats and the flash wasn’t working for me, damn Apple not allowing flash, but this makes using WordPress even better.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Like it very much!
September 30th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
It’s an improvement over the line graph, but technically it should really be a histogram (with the bars touching) rather than a bar graph, since time is continuous.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Sorry, but I actually preferred the lines and points to the bars – much easier to read and get an immediate idea of traffic. I suppose I’ll get used to it…
September 30th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
I like it this way. Much easier to read. Also haha I wish I had that many views on my lonely lil blog. I keep getting spam and I don’t count that. Ahhh saddness ahhh well I still get to critique fashion. It’s been such a great outlet for my anger since work keeps squashing it….SQUASHING. AHHH.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Hate it hate it hate it hate it hate it. The line graph was much easier to read and more appealing in every way. Why do you persist in fixing things that aren’t broken?
September 30th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
We have fixed the bug with IE7 where the right side of the charts were not hovering properly. We still recommend upgrading to IE 8 or a modern browser like Firefox, Safari, or Chrome though.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
I loved this change
There are a lot more options now, and I liked your ideology behind shifting to a ‘previous-day-unconnected’ bar graph representation. I especially liked that the weekend days are now highlighted separately; it puts a lot of things things into perspective in terms of blog hits! 
September 30th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Anything new takes some getting use to. This was easy to learn and understand right from the start. I like it. I especially like being able to click on past bars and it brings up all the info for that day. Very ingenious. Am loving WordPress even more. Thanks.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
I like it. A bit of a shock at first, but hey so was Elvis…
I prefer the bars because when the page hits go down, it doesn’t look so much like my blog is crashing.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Okay, I was a little surprised when I saw the new face of the charts, but I see your point. I just wish there was an option to choose the line graph.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
I appreciate your will to improve the page, but honestly I don’t like bars. With lines it’s easier to see the trend of the blog, in my opinion.
Instead I would like very much if you add to WordPress.com more analytic tools (something like Google Analytics)!
September 30th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Besides still complaining about the bar / semi-histogram and wanting a choice of the line graph, I would like to see yesterday and today’s Posts & Pages on the same page without having to click. I cannot glance. More work to have to write down info to compare. There is too much clicking now.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Sorry guys but I liked the old one better, probably just like anything newfangled I’ll come to like it over time…
September 30th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Don’t like this new one at all. WordPress needs to learn that sometimes it’s best to leave good enough alone.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Bars work, but as others have pointed out you have to work harder to see trends. Preferred having greater number of days shown and each day’s date (2 iterations ago, and no, I didn’t have to turn my head sideways to read), and this does load much slower.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
The number of days shown has not changed.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Not bad, not bad at all!
I especially like that we can check stats on our iPhones, etc. that can’t handle flash; too many times I’ll schedule a post to publish while I’m still asleep and I don’t want to turn my computer on just to check the stats after I wake up.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Was wondering if you could also add a tab for year stats my blog is coming up on a year and it would be nice to see this change from year to year in graph form! Love the lines.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Simply brilliant. No more broken flash area. Yay! My iphone and I thank you! Yes, bars all the way!
September 30th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
I absolutely dislike the bar stats. It’s the same boring **** like everywhere now. The graph stats had a much better visualized flow of the facts. Also the new index cards of the single stats: There was a much better overlooking view about everything before, now i’m forced to click through the cards. That’s annoying.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Sorry Mike, I disagree, I don’t like the bars and you can’t read my mind.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Wow! I wish my stats page had the same hits figures as that in the photo!!!
September 30th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Love the new look, but would be happier with more comprehensive statistics. Keep on truckin’, WordPress.com!
September 30th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Can you be more specific about comprehensive?
September 30th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
I am a statistician and as a statistician those bar charts are meaningless in the current situation. Bar charts or histograms are used to represent frequencies of observations in classes or groups, not as a time series representation. Please change to something statistically meaningful!
September 30th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
No. Not at all sexy, which is a foolish and overused adjective anyway. But I don’t like bar graphs.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Any which way the graphs are presented is fine with me but whenever something is upgraded to super sexy, I’m all for it. Thanks.
September 30th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
The stats look really nice however the one feature the stats lack are country visitor tracking. I’d really like to know what countries read what posts because I post in multiple languages on my blog. I have to now use outside stat trackers to track country visitors because WP stats lacks this. This is strange since google’s stats track this so since we can no longer use google’s stats with wp.com I’d appreciate if you guys could bring this feature back into the WP.com stats.
Otherwise so far so good thanks!
September 30th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I love the new stats – definitely sexy! So much easier on the eyes – thank you for constantly making WordPress better!
September 30th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
I am addicted to checking my stats and love the new format. You might consider adding a world map which will plot reader locations.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
I think the bar charts are great, the are simple and tidy, plus they work on my superphone erm iPhone.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
I like lines better…the ones that were there a few weeks back…not the blue graphs…
September 30th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
I’ve noticed it takes two page loads to go from the Dashboard to the stats for a day, which isn’t a problem except that the browser’s “back” button (or backspace) don’t take you back to the Dashboard, but reloads the daily stats. A minor point – there is a “return to stats” option one can click – but a bit of an annoyance.
Other than that, a great improvement, and you’re absolutely right, bars are more appropriate than connected points for this sort of thing.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
If your Dashboard widget is set to show data by days you can click on the bar for the day to go to that days stats.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I know I’m probably in a minority of one here, but I often wish you guys could just leave things alone. There’s been some changes of various kinds the last year or so, and for those of us who simply don’t care for fireworks but simply want to publish something – movie reviews, in my case – and who, on top of that, are not internet sassy, this is just a pain in the arse.
Anyhow, as I said: I’m probably in a minority of one. So keep up the good work!
(The new stats are ok, but as I said – I simply don’t care for fireworks. This is like having a book, say, with bright lights and mirrors on it. The old stats were ok too, and the lay out was less confusing.)
September 30th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
I’m not a fan of bar graphs. I liked the days flowing together. I guess I’ll get used to it though.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
It seems strange after the line charts. I don’t think it is a s easy to see overall trends but maybe I just need to get used to it.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
As to me, this one is amazing!
September 30th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
So glad I can view them on my iphone now! Thanks!!
September 30th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
To be honest, I prefer the old layout. This new layout requires a lot more clicks just to see everything I could with the old layout. Why have an extra click to see all the stats from yesterday when in the old layout I could compare them side-by-side because they were both shown? In my mind, the less clicks it takes to get somewhere, the better.
I also want to add that I prefer the line graph to the bar graph. Lines are a bit more visually intuitive because you can see the “slopes” between days. But this is just a minor complaint. I would like to see stats from today and yesterday placed side-by-side again.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Love the new stats! . . . my only complaint? my numbers aren’t as high as the one in the example
.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Excellent improvement, however I would prefer the flexibility to switch between the bar chart and the frequency polygon or maybe even overlay them. I think multiple formats for the data would be the perfect the solution. I’d suggest being able to toggle between and overlay the bar chart, the frequency polygon, and the ogive.
September 30th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Just when we getting used to the “old” ugly lines with the blue, now we have to get used to this very neat and yes, sexy, re-do. I will manage, I guess! (Wonderful!)