Heatmaps in Usability Analysis

Website analysis tools, such as Google Analytics or Matomo, are excellent for gaining an overall view of the website through large data sets. However, these tools are often limited. They often help only to a certain extent in exactly understanding how users interact with the website. The additional use of heatmaps fills this gap and offers valuable insights into user interaction and navigation.

What are Heatmaps?

Heatmaps are a visual representation of data points. They are based on a color code that highlights hotspots of user activity. Typically, the color spectrum ranges from blue (low user activity) to red (high user activity).

A heatmap is usually a semi-transparent overlay displayed on a single webpage. The colored areas of the heatmap indicate which elements of the page users engage with the most and which are more likely to be overlooked or ignored.

Heatmaps assist in verifying whether page elements, such as buttons and forms, are functioning as intended. A heatmap can also help optimize the customer journey by revealing areas of the website that should be improved. This can help optimize the conversion rate.

How do Heatmap Analyses Work?

Heatmapping tools gather data about how users interact with a page: what they click on, how far they scroll, and even where they place the mouse pointer. The tool records this data and presents it visually as a multicolored map of the page. These are generally easy to understand and more meaningful than standalone data.

Three types of heatmaps can be defined:

Scroll Maps

The scroll map reflects how far users scroll down a page. A scroll map divides the page into large horizontal sections. Each section is colored depending on how many users have viewed this area. For example, the top section of a webpage is usually colored red as it is generally seen by every user. The lower sections of the page then gradually become bluer, depending on the percentage of users who scroll that far down.

Scroll maps are excellent for analyzing the performance of longer pages. It can also be inferred whether important information is being seen by users or if it would be better placed elsewhere.

It is important to note during analysis that often the most important aspects of a website are embedded in the upper area, such as clear call-to-action buttons leading to the next step. The high relevance of the upper areas may lead to lower sections being seen less frequently. However, this is not necessarily an indicator of poor performance of these sections. For this reason, insights from scroll maps should always be supplemented and enriched with other information.

Click Maps

Click maps are more detailed than scroll maps. Using a click map, it is possible to trace the page elements that users click on. The elements with the most clicks are shown in red. These typically include call-to-action buttons, navigation menus, embedded videos, and links. 

Click maps can help evaluate the relevance of clickable elements. Primary call-to-action buttons may have been intended for interaction, yet other elements might receive more clicks. This can deduce what users are really looking for and which content engages them, allowing the page to be redesigned based on these insights. 

An advantage of click map analysis is recognizing ambiguous areas. It can be inferred whether users click on elements that were not intended to be clickable. Often, for example, images are clicked that are not clickable. This data can help identify and eliminate distractions on the page, further refining the user journey. 

Hover Maps

At first glance, hover maps look like click maps. The key difference is that hover maps show where users place their mouse pointer, regardless of whether they actually click on an element. This can uncover subconscious user behavior. For example, it becomes evident how users read and "scan" the page before deciding to actually click. There is a strong correlation between the cursor's position and the point where the user is on the page.

These usability analyses can help design a better visual architecture for landing pages and other important areas of the website.

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