In piwik 1.3 the UI for date ranges is still immature, because the period selection isn't correctly formulated.
In 1.2 we had a radio button selection among:
[list]
[] day, showing 30 days
[] week, showing 30 weeks
[] month, showing 30 months
[] year, showing 12 years
[/list]
Adding the date range radio button isn't logical, because the behaviour is now that:
[list]
[] I set a date range, and it's shown
[] I select the week button, and 30 weeks are shown
[*] etc. etc.
[/list]
I think the correct UI should have the same day/week/month/year radio buttons like before, and a "date range" checkbox: when the checkbox is checked, the same date range is used to generate the day/week/month/year statistics.
Attachment: Custom date range UI mockup
Custom date range mockup.png
While I agree the calendar isn't perfect, I don't see what your suggestion really implies. please post some mockups of different states to show what you mean, and how it would improve the UI, Thank you!
I've added a mockup of the proposal.
The proposal supposes that when you check the "custom date range" checkbox you are presented the two calendars, and the day/week/month/year radio buttons are still active, and determine what you are going to see.
Now, if you select the date range radio button you are presented the daily trend in the given range.
In my proposal you are proposed a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly trend in the given custom date range.
Hoping now it's more clear. I think that with my proposal the user is given more flexibility in seeing his data.
Thank you for your attention.