Google Analytics: average time it take users to trigger an event

Question

I implemented Google Analytics event tracking on my currency conversion website. The typical user flow is:

1. User lands on a page about two currencies.
2. User enters an amount to be converted.
3. The site shows the user the value in the other currency.

The JavaScript sends Google Analytics an "converted" event when the currency conversion is done. Because most of the sessions on my site are single page, the event tracking is very important to me to be able to know if users find my page useful.

I'm looking for a way to be able to figure out how long it typically takes users to enter a value in the form. I expect that this data would form a bell curve with around a specific amount of time after page load. If I can't get a graph, I could make do with a median value. I would like to be able to use this as a core metric around usability testing.

Is there a way to get this information out of Google Analytics?

Answer 1

To get a histogram or distribution use user timings. They conveniently go with your use case of tracking form timing. When the page loads you start a timer, then when you send the "converted" event you also send a user timing hit.

Don't forget to set the sample rate parameter or only 1% will be collected, unless you have already set _setSiteSpeedSampleRate.