Instrumentation · 2026-07-18
A practical event taxonomy for growing mobile apps
How to name, govern, and review events before your tracking plan becomes a source of confusion.
An event taxonomy is a shared language for what people do in your app. When that language grows by accident, analysts spend their time translating, engineers hesitate before instrumenting, and product teams lose confidence in basic answers.
Begin with behavior, not screens
Screen names change. Useful behaviors tend to endure. “Report Viewed” communicates a meaningful action; “Results Tab Clicked” captures one temporary interface route. Name events around completed behaviors and use properties to preserve useful context.
Set rules before adding rows
Document tense, capitalization, object naming, required properties, identity expectations, and ownership. A short set of enforced rules does more for quality than a very large tracking spreadsheet.
Review the system as a product
Assign an owner, include analytics in release QA, and schedule a quarterly review for duplication and unused events. A taxonomy stays useful through maintenance, not initial perfection.