Event standards

Name the behavior and workflow step#

Event names must be specific enough to explain what happened and where it happened. Include the workflow, feature, or step when it helps explain drop-off.

Good names:

• Opened Education Step of Immigration form
• Filled Education Step of Immigration form
• Started filling UK immigration report
• Opened checkout page
• Attempted payment on checkout page
• Completed payment on checkout page
• Payment failed on checkout page

Avoid clicked, signup, button_clicked, form_input, or payment.

Specific does not mean collecting input. Describe the action and state, never the value the user entered.

Reuse an event dictionary#

Declare names and descriptions once, then reuse them:

export const EVENTS = {
  checkoutOpened: {
    name: 'Opened checkout page',
    description: 'User entered checkout after reviewing the order summary.',
  },
  paymentAttempted: {
    name: 'Attempted payment on checkout page',
    description: 'User submitted payment details from the checkout page.',
  },
  paymentSucceeded: {
    name: 'Completed payment on checkout page',
    description: 'The payment provider confirmed a successful transaction.',
  },
  paymentFailed: {
    name: 'Payment failed on checkout page',
    description: 'The payment provider rejected or failed the transaction.',
  },
} as const

This prevents spelling drift and makes event definitions reusable.

Track behavior, not input#

Safe properties describe actions, states, outcomes, counts, categories, and coarse identifiers:

analytics.track('Completed education form step', {
  step: 3,
  stepName: 'education',
  validationErrorCount: 0,
})

Do not send form values, search terms, chat messages, prompts, passwords, payment details, or arbitrary free text by default. Do not put user input in an event name. Only track a particular input when the user explicitly requests it and confirms that it is appropriate.

Payment analysis#

Send events when the user enters checkout, attempts payment, and receives a success or failure result.

analytics.track(EVENTS.checkoutOpened.name, { plan: 'pro' })
analytics.track(EVENTS.paymentAttempted.name, { plan: 'pro', provider: 'stripe' })
analytics.track(EVENTS.paymentFailed.name, {
  plan: 'pro',
  provider: 'stripe',
  failureCode: 'card_declined',
})

Use status codes and categories, never card numbers, CVVs, bank details, payment tokens, or raw provider responses.

Forms and workflows#

Useful form events include opened step, completed step, continued, validation failed, and abandoned. Their properties should identify the step and outcome, not the answer.

analytics.track('Validation failed on Education Step of Immigration form', {
  step: 3,
  errorCount: 2,
})