Which areas of my interface do people interact with more strongly from an emotional or intellectual standpoint than others? This is only one of the several inquiries that user experience designers want to be able to answer with accuracy.
If the language in UX research papers isn’t your cup of tea, allow me to keep it straightforward.
Where do people glance at your interface?
Many of the answers to that seemingly basic query may be found in heatmaps. Heatmaps are a sophisticated visual depiction of responses brought on by interacting with digital systems, to put it simply.
Large portions of this interaction data are abstracted into actionable quants in the visual interpretation, such as the interface components with the most clicks, the pages with the deepest scroll depths, and the locations with the highest density of mouse movements, to mention a few.
For UX teams, this quantification has significant implications. In order to improve usability, we try to decipher a few interpretations with the use of this article.
Source: https://www.freepik.com/
Use every little data to improve your UX
Quantitative and qualitative data are the two sorts of data that can assist you in resolving the aforementioned conundrum.
With the use of research tools like Google Analytics, quantitative data is obtained.
The issue with relying solely on quantitative data is that while it can provide you with a performance figure for any measure you track, it is unable to offer any explanation for the performance behind it.
For instance, quantitative data will only tell you that a visitor churned while going from step 1 to stage 2 in their trip, not why they churned. A qualitative UX research tool that records and visualizes users’ on-site or on-page activity is the website heatmap.
First and foremost, remember that there is no one, perfect design that will always function when creating an interface or designing for an improved user experience. People frequently alter their demands as well as their preferences.
This, along with the numerous upgrades to every digital platform, need constant design modifications, which increases the significance of the process of obtaining, evaluating, and utilizing user interaction data. What better way to accomplish this than by making use of the strength of a powerful website heatmap application?
Furthermore, there are five main data gathering and visualization techniques available with website heatmaps:
- Segment heatmap
- Click heatmap
- Scroll heatmap
- Eye tracking heatmap
- Mouse tracking heatmap
You may test and improve the key design components of your website, such as CTA buttons, navigation, pictures, text, and the overall layout, utilizing the click, scroll, cursory hover, gaze shift, and gaze frequency data collected using the many forms of website heatmaps.
Now let’s look at how each heatmap provides you with information you can utilize to improve the user experience your website offers:
- CTA
- Navigation
- Content (text and objects)
- Page length
CTAs
A website or app’s CTA buttons are one of the key components, and having clear CTAs with effective wording and placement may significantly improve user experience and conversion rates.
The wording of your CTA should be self-explanatory in terms of what the button is for, and it should be situated in a way that visitors and users do not have to fight to find it in order for visitors to have a smooth experience.
UX designers and analysts can use heatmaps to determine a variety of things.
Whether the main CTAs are actually receiving attention or not, which elements on the page are being clicked on instead of the CTA, whether the CTA copy is compelling enough or not, whether the CTAs below the fold are receiving enough attention or not, and much more.
Demand generation teams may immediately check the heatmap of their resource page to determine if users are clicking on the CTA that contains the download link to their best-selling ebook, which cost them thousands of dollars and a lot of their time to create.
And all of these insights may be discovered simply by observing the behavior of current users while they are on the site, negating the need to spend money on attracting new visitors.
Source: https://www.freepik.com/
Navigation
A terrible UX results from faulty navigation that has several friction points or that does not meet visitor expectations.
When website visitors struggle to discover what they’re searching for or when the navigation flow places a heavier cognitive burden on them, frustration sets in, which causes visitors to leave your site without making a purchase.
You may create a navigation map that corresponds to visitor expectations by using heatmaps to track and evaluate visitors’ navigational behaviors.
The information provided by website heatmaps also enables you to spot redundant and broken connections that influence the general usability of your digital property.
For instance, the UX team of an eCommerce website may examine the heatmap of the homepage to determine the discoverability of the navigation bars and symbols on it.
Assess how easily visitors can travel from point A to point B in their trip, and spot possible distractions.
In actuality, the heatmap seen above is from a test that Galeton performed on the menu bar of its website.
Content
The two main components of a website’s design are text and images. When these two components are not placed and quality-driven for conversions at their highest levels, a problem occurs.
You may use heatmaps to determine which parts of a web page are visited the most frequently and put the most important content and pictures there.
By watching the visitors’ pointer movements with a mouse tracking heatmap, you may determine whether the copy is unclear depending on how long the cursor stays in one place.
You may find out where people click the most, where they anticipate seeing a certain picture, which photos are anticipated to be hyperlinked, and more by using click heatmaps.
You may learn where visitors are gazing the most, which images grab their attention, which language makes them stay longer, and other information using eye tracking heatmaps, which collect information on visitors’ gaze length and frequency.
For instance, the heatmap of two distinct advertisements for the same product is shown in the figure above.
Designers and marketers may quickly compare the two heatmaps to see that the second design, in which the endorser is gazing straight at the product, draws more visits than the first design.
Even the copy is more effective in the second design than it is in the first design.
Although there are many more use cases, the fact remains that website heatmaps assist you in understanding the dynamic and ever-evolving world of users’ demands and behavioral tendencies.
Source: https://www.freepik.com/
Page Count
Nobody likes spending a lot of time reading through a single website on their phones or PCs in search of anything.
In spite of this, every company is diverse, and every one of its websites displays distinctive objectives. Therefore, the length of a page is always based on the purpose or goals that a given web page or website is trying to accomplish.
When establishing the page duration for your website, scroll heatmaps may be of enormous help.
For instance, blogging and publishing websites can use scroll heatmaps to determine which parts of a page visitors are scrolling to the most. Determine the fold beyond which visitors don’t bother scrolling or which witnesses the highest number of bounce-offs, and assess the readability or traction that the content below the fold warrants.
Find false floors, and much more. By utilizing these practical insights that website heatmaps provide, they may determine the appropriate duration for their blogs and articles.
The relationship between heatmaps and UX in multichannel tasks
There is no doubt that superior, high-quality information on visitors’ online behavioral trends.
These provide marketers and UX designers with account for website heatmaps’ domination when it comes to planning for an outstanding UX.
However, there is another factor involved in this domination that looks to be gradually emerging as a significant contributor: omnichannel experience.
An omnichannel experience is a whole service a website provides to each visitor across all devices.
Having said that, we now live in a time where everyone may simultaneously own a desktop computer, a mobile phone, a tablet, or any other type of gadget.
And they access various websites using all of these gadgets, sometimes even the same page on various devices. The interface must be designed in such a way that each element is in its most optimized form and is consistent in delivering a positive user experience throughout the journey and across devices.
It can be useful in a situation where it is uncertain which device a visitor will start their journey on and which they will end it.
Delivering a positive omnichannel experience to every visitor has now become crucial, which is why website heatmaps have acquired even more momentum in taking on a crucial role in the whole UX designing process.
Website heatmaps give you the power to gather, visualize, and analyze data from various devices in a way that best fits your plan for achieving your UX goals.
They do this by allowing you to track and visualize user behavior data on each type of device separately as well as the ability to create aggregate heatmaps of data from all devices combined.
Conclusion
It is not surprising that website heatmaps have emerged as the analytical leader in the process of designing for outstanding UX.
Website heatmap is a very effective and essential analytics tool when used in conjunction with A/B testing.
It enables marketers and designers to put themselves in the shoes of their target audience and visitors to test and create the website experience.
The analytics and UX team only became stronger with the addition of testing. Website heatmaps will eventually take center stage in other spheres of the internet world, much like CRO and UX/UI have done.
We hope we can help.
