The main advantage of utilizing heat maps is that they explain information that might otherwise be difficult to understand or boring. It is not necessary to explain the idea of “warmer colors indicating a closer focus of interactions” to several people; instead, they will identify such patterns and make their own decisions. This democratization of data science will allow more people in your company to learn about how users engage with your website.
Types of Heat Map
When it comes to assessing websites, there are six different types of website heatmap. Each kind represents a unique way in which visitors interact with various components of the website, such as scrolling, hovering, clicking, or tapping via mobile devices. Every method has unique benefits.
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Computer vs. mobile
Dynamic content can be found on many websites. There is a major difference between desktop and mobile devices regarding screen size and resolution. In this case, you’ll need to make two distinct heat maps, one for each type of device, or else your overlays will be wrong.
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Scrolling maps
As we’ve already discussed, this map type indicates how far down the page the basic user scrolls before leaving.
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Maps link
A click map will show your website’s or web app’s most popular parts. They inform experts about the most often clicked-on links, advertisements, and calls to action. When it comes to user engagement, warmer colors indicate more activity.
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Eye tracking
While click monitoring can reveal which links on a page a user clicks on most often; eye tracking can reveal which parts of the page the person actually reads. It can be difficult to get a big sample size of users because of the specialist equipment or webcam access required for eye tracking. However, you will be rewarded with useful insights if you can collect sufficient data.
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Mouse-tracking (AKA hover maps)
Although eye tracking data is preferable, mouse clicks can sometimes stand in place if a large enough sample cannot be collected. According to the studies, users can effectively replace eye movement with mouse movement by hovering their mouse across the most attractive webpage. Moreover, there is a lack of clear evidence, and some research opposes others in indicating that mouse tracking is not a suitable replacement for eye tracking.
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Confetti news
Compared to click maps, which indicate active regions, confetti maps display every single click. These insights can help determine if visitors are upset because they are trying to interact with non-interactive page components. They can assist you in targeting only those users interested in a particular page element.
Conclusion
A heat map makes density easier to understand. Plus, it’s a wonderful tool for visualizing things like how far down a page a user scrolled, where they clicked, and where they were looking while collecting data on website usability. This can be quite helpful in determining the optimal site structure, call-to-action placement, and overall usability. Heat maps are useful, but they require careful design and interpretation, as well as large sample size and some basic information, such as when the site was last updated. The use of heat maps should be viewed as complementary to other analytic methods for examining client behavior and sales.
