Heatmaps are a fundamental tool for optimizing the UX of a website. These solutions, in fact, allow you to monitor the work done by the user on the internet pages of your domain. In this way, you can discover what works and what doesn't. For example, you have the possibility of understanding how people move, where they go, why they click and when they scroll.
Let's face it: you are giving a look, respecting the privacy, to the people while they use the content you have published online. A real Copernican revolution to intervene on the various elements of conversion of the pages and how to simplify the life of those who are your potential customers.
Table of Contents
What are heatmaps, a definition
Why is it important to use heatmaps?
How to read a site heat map?
What are the different types of heat maps?
4 Tools for Creating Heat Maps
Hotjar
Crazy Egg
Clarity
Inspection
Mouseflow
How to best use these tools?
What are heatmaps, a definition
Heatmaps are graphic representations of user behavior Oman Phone Numbers on a web page. They appear as a graphic representation of the observed resource, slightly darkened, on which areas are outlined with a different gradation of colors: those tending towards blue are the areas in which attention is less, if they go towards red they are characterized by a higher focus.
These heat maps are used in different fields , we focus on how web performance uses heat maps to improve and optimize online publications but it is important to know that they are also a tool that can be used in different fields for data storytelling .
Not surprisingly, Hotjar's post recalls , the term known as heatmap was first used in the early 1990s, when software designer Cormac Kinney created a tool to graphically display real-time financial market information.
Why is it important to use heatmaps?
Thanks to these tools, you can obtain decisive results in the analysis and optimization phases to discover which elements the public ignores and which they try to activate or click without success. Perhaps starting a series of attempts that end in the phenomenon known as rage click. With heatmaps, you can eliminate distractions to highlight what really matters.
What is a rage click?
In some cases, a button with a CTA can stand out and give great results, but only if you identify the sources of distraction that attract the audience's attention. With a good heat map analysis, you can eliminate what is not needed, and ensure that the most important content emerges along with the essential points for conversions, such as opt-ins, contact forms, buttons and links.
How to read a site heat map?
The logic that allows you to interpret a heat map obtained with analysis tools is quite simple: warm colors ranging from yellow to red indicate a high concentration of actions performed.
Cold colors, from green to blue, communicate little activity. So it is easy to understand how people interact with web pages through different actions , from scrolling to clicking. Obviously everything depends on the type of heatmap. In fact, there are different ones based on the events you need to observe.
What are the different types of heat maps?
One of the most interesting solutions is the click heatmap. That is, a representation of the actions performed by a computer mouse. This document allows you to understand where people direct their attention to perform a concrete action. For example, visiting a landing page or sending an email.
Tap maps of how users act on smartphones and tablets are also included in the click results. Scroll maps are those that allow you to identify where people stop in relation to the length of the web page and what percentage of users go above the fold .
click heatmap
A click heat map from Hotjar.
Displacement maps , on the other hand, identify the points – identified with the classic warm/cold chromatic gradation – where a cursor is positioned following a movement.
Often, along with the different types of heatmaps we also have user session recordings. This feature creates videos of the activities performed by people who use web pages .
All documents, from the various heat maps to the videos of the sessions, contribute to form that corpus of data that a good data analyst must interpret to guide a UI optimization.
4 Tools for Crea