UX specialists often get questions from their customers regarding what a heatmap is and how to analyze a heat map. Let’s go step by step. So, what is a heatmap?
A heatmap is unquestionably a must-have tool for the specialists involved in the insights of usability enhancement. Heatmaps provide valued data about clicks, hovers, and scrolls, enabling you to conduct a comprehensive UX analysis and significantly improve user interaction with your website. However, simply collecting the info from a heatmap is not enough. Heatmap needs accurate interpretation. So UX specialists proceed to analyze the collected heatmap details and find insights into the problems that a heatmap shows.
Plerdy heatmaps have helped to analyze and boost the usability of multiple websites. To better demonstrate heatmap benefits, I’ve provided a few use cases of how we analyze heatmaps in the article below.
Heatmap Analysis Framework
Now is the right time to clarify how one can analyze a heatmap. At Plerdy, when we have a set task to check how users behave on a certain website, we usually follow this procedure with a heatmap:
- The first thing we do is generate ideas of what we should check on the heatmap.
- Next, we analyze and build hypotheses for what and how we should improve based on the heatmap data we analyze.
- We go page by page on the heatmap (home, product, cart, payment page, and so on), seeking abnormalities that prevent users from moving to the next page. Also, we analyze and understand why the user doesn’t make a mini-conversion. For example, it can be adding an item to the cart, filtering goods, using the search function, etc.
Next, we analyze the results obtained from the heatmap, and on their basis, it becomes evident how to improve UX.
How To Analyze A Heatmap: Best Cases From Plerdy
Installing a heat map by Plerdy allows you to deeply analyze how users behave on your website. Below, I’m sharing with you a few best cases of its usage and explaining how exactly this analysis runs.
Pro-Street.dk Heatmap Analyze
The analysis of a heatmap on pro-street.dk pointed to a low scroll depth. If only 25% of users scroll down the page, there is something wrong with the first screen, as the heatmap shows. We analyze that the main issue is the huge logo and partner’s ad taking up the greater part of the space on the page. How to solve it? A good idea would be to make them smaller and place something more eye-catching in the central part instead.
All in all, based on the received results from the heatmap, I’ve recommended how to solve the problem:
- re-sizing (making smaller) huge elements, including the logo and advertisements;
- eliminating useless icons;
- concentration on their service rather than making partners’ ads the main focus;
- adding catchier content and CTAs;
- improving navigation by adding subheadings, internal links to related content, and a fast scrolling button.
Implementing the described actions will decrease the bounce rate and significantly improve the website’s usability.
How to Analyze Heatmap Data on 3das.com
The heatmap installed on 3das.com demonstrates that the website has repeated elements such as the “Search” and “Contact us” fields. According to the heatmap, it would be wise to leave them used once and relocate the social media icons to a footer.
Also, we see on the heatmap that the website lacks an FAQ section and pagination. Adding them would simplify the user experience.
As the heatmap shows, the website content is not adapted to mobile devices, which impacts the bounce rate. How to solve it? To make users stay on your website and convert, adjust your content for desktop and mobile users. And I also recommend adding a zoom function for images.
The heatmap shows that users tried to click on some parts of the text though it had no links. If these parts draw users’ interest, making them clickable would bring only good.
Besides, if we analyze the heatmap, 3das.com needs unifying fonts and adding catchy CTAs to increase conversions.
Results of the Alseresport.com Heatmap Analyze
The Alseresport.com heatmap analysis demonstrates rather good results. In particular, the heatmap we have analyzed demonstrates that the cart and checkout pages look pretty good and safe. As for the home page, the heatmap shows that the search bar and the login button are very often clicked on. Nevertheless, there is space for improvement.
Considering the heatmap, I have two useful recommendations for its simplification:
- to enable the user to see the password you are typing in;
- to allow logging in via a social media account.
Also, the heatmap demonstrates that because of a rather low scroll depth, not all users see the 5-euro discount offer at the bottom of the page. Therefore, I recommend displaying this offer on a pop-up, for instance, 15 seconds after a user loaded the page.
After we analyzed the heatmap, we saw that the images on the website need to be unified in a single style and improved in quality.
Judging by the heatmap and 65 clicks on the “Contact” button in the footer, the website’s visitors lack some information. Therefore, the content should be expanded and structured:
- add details about delivery methods, for instance;
- present the product descriptions in tables;
- highlight headings for better perception.
And though the heatmap shows there is a good FAQ section, the relevant button should be located in a more visible place.
Analyzing the heatmap, I also recommend forgetting about the “no results found” page. Instead, we should offer alternatives as similar to the user’s request as possible to improve the heatmap. Enabling users to filter the products would also positively impact the UX and how the user behaves. And the heatmap will show it.
Analyze UX with a Heatmap on Animalessalvajes.world
The first thing to pay attention to on the heatmap is a pop-up that appears 5 seconds after the user loads the website. Unfortunately, 5 seconds is a too short period, not enough for a visitor to fully understand what the website is about. This is why, after I analyze the heatmap, I recommend changing the display rule for this pop-up, making it appear in 15 seconds, or at a 30% page scroll, for instance.
Next, duplicated elements. If we look at the categories in the menu, the main bar, and the search bar, they are the same. We can either remove them or change them to improve the heatmap. Plus, the search bar also appears twice on the home page. One will be enough.
In the right part of the screen, when I analyze the heatmap, I see a massive blank white space that brings no use but harms UX.
Again, the heatmap shows that the search bar does not stand out among social media icons in design. However, it is more important; thus, it should stand out and be more visible.
I’ve noticed too many articles on the homepage. It is better to leave the most valued on here and add pagination.
I would also make the phrase “Discover more” clickable to lead users to the dedicated category pages. Alternatively, I’d add the buttons with CTA on those categories to hint to users where they need to click. The heatmap would show a significant improvement.
The subscription form placement. The heatmap shows that only 24% of visitors scroll to this place, so it should be placed slightly above or re-designed. The neutral design makes the subscription form not very noticeable. How to solve it? We need to make it catchier by complementing it with a banner and changing the style or the message. Adding a bit of creativity to the website’s slogans would attract more conversions and improve the heatmap.
Again, because of a very low scroll depth, the elements in the 4th region could be placed upper on the page if they bring value.
How to Analyze Gothombi.com Heatmap
The first thing that draws my attention on the heatmap is the big banner that takes up almost the whole first screen. How to solve it? I recommend resizing it since it is more important to give here valued info rather than just showing an image. Besides, the “Learn more” button also leads users to the first screen that gives no details, as the heat map shows.
Estimating the scroll depth on the heatmap, I see that only 47% of users got to the third region, and 53% of visitors saw only a nice image. So, in general, we need to resize images to enhance the load speed because now it is rather low.
Though we see no important information on the homepage, as the heat map shows, we can find it in the footer. However, the links there lack an “a” tag, so they look like texts, not links.
The subscription form containing information about Covid is a good idea, but it could be improved to grab more attention since we see no clicks here. Unfortunately, another subscription form in the footer shows no clicks on how to subscribe, which is no surprise because people rarely scroll down to it. To increase the form’s visibility, we could present it via a pop-up with rigid display rules.
When we fill in the subscription form and click “Subscribe,” the button appears again, and we are sent to another page, as the heat map shows. This is not good for UX. The user should know for sure that their query has been sent. I recommend improving the spam check page design by moving the ReCaptcha to the previous page without going to another page. Plus, by adding a message stating that the form was sent without a spam check.
Daybydaycrm.com Heatmap Analyze
When we go to daybydaycrm.com, the first thing we see on the heatmap is an immediate pop-up. Judging by the heat map and the 124 clicks on the “Hide” button and only three replies, we see something wrong with it. The pop-up asks users what prevents them from signing up. If we have just loaded the website, we have not had enough time to familiarize ourselves with its content. Therefore, we cannot reply. Therefore, I recommend adjusting the display rule, giving users more time to browse the website.
The heatmap shows that the Features and Pricing buttons are the most frequently clicked. Adding an arrow to hint that this section comprises more tabs would be a good improvement.
In general, for better UX, I strongly recommend the following:
- making the menu bar floating;
- adding an arrow for a quick return to the top of the page;
- enabling zoom-in opportunities for images;
- enabling users to see the password they are entering when logging in;
- simplifying registration by allowing logging in via social media profiles;
- adding buttons with CTAs after the described prices;
- creating an “About Us” page to tell users more about the company and its representatives.
What else draws my attention when I analyze the heat map is that the “Learn more” button gets more clicks than the “Get started free” button, probably because of the design. So we could make the latter button stand out to get clicks.
Another important piece of advice on the heatmap is to remove duplicated elements. For instance, following the “Support” and “Contact” links in the footer will lead us to the same page.
Conclusions about How to Analyze Heatmaps
In this article, I explained how we analyze the heatmap – such an essential marketing tool. By providing Plerdy’s use cases, I illustrated the logic of the heatmap analysis framework. And I hope you have found the info on how to analyze the heatmap useful.
