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• The Ultimate Guide to HeatMap Software

  20 septembre 2021, par Ben Erskine — Analytics Tips, Plugins, Heatmaps

  One of the most effective ways to improve the user experience on your website is to use heatmap software. As well as in-depth insight on how to improve your website and funnels, user behaviour analytics complement traditional web metrics with insights from your customers’ point of view. 

  Heatmap software shows actual user behaviour. That means that you have a visual representation of why a customer might not be converting instead of guessing. 

  By tracking clicks, mouse movement, and page scrolling as well as analysing above the fold content engagement and overall session recordings, heatmap software helps improve user experience and therefore customer retention and conversions.  

  

  What is heatmap software ?

  Heatmap software is a data visualisation tool that uses colour to show what actions a user is taking on a website. 

  If there is a design element on a page that many users engage with, it will show as red/hot. For elements that are less engaging, it will show on the analysis as blue/cold. 

   

  Heatmap software like Matomo helps businesses to improve user experience and increase conversions by tracking elements such as :

  • Flow through sales funnels 
  • Individual session recordings for user experience 
  • A/B page comparisons 
  • Form analytics for sign ups and conversions 
  • Media interaction such as instruction or sales videos
  • Clicks on important links and information 

  Using data visualisation software like a heatmap provides more in-depth data when combined with standard website metrics. 

  What is heatmap software used for ?

  Heatmap software tracks website user behaviour to improve website performance and increase conversions. 

  Heatmaps can show you a detailed analysis of : 

  • Where visitors are clicking (or not clicking) 
  • Where visitors are hovering with their mouse
  • How far users are scrolling or stopping 
  • Where the focus is above the fold 
  • What roadblocks or frictions customers are facing in the sales funnel

  Analysing activity on your website and across channels from your customers point of view is critical in developing a customer-centric business model. 

  This is because heatmaps not only show you what customers are doing but why they are doing it. 

  Heatmap software is ideal for businesses updating and redesigning websites. It also helps to answer important growth questions such as “how can we improve our user experience ?” and “why is our sales funnel not converting better ?”. 

  The benefits of using data visualisation like heatmaps for your website

  Heatmaps are critical for improving websites because they drastically improve customer experience. 

  Customer experience is one of the most important factors in modern business success. A Walker study found that customer experience is one of the biggest differentiators between brands, overtaking other factors such as price. 

  Where straightforward website metrics show customers left a page without action, data visualisation and session recordings show what happens in between them arriving and leaving. This gives web developers and marketers invaluable insights to improve website design and ultimately increase conversions. 

  How heatmap software improves your website and conversions

  There are a few key ways that heatmap software boosts website performance and conversions. All of them focus on both creating a seamless buyer journey and using data to improve results over time. 

  How heatmap software improves conversions ; 

  • By improving UX and usability– 70% of online businesses fail due to bad usability. Heatmaps identify user frustrations and optimise accordingly 
  • By improving content structure – Heatmaps take the guesswork out of design layout and content structure by showing real visitor experiences on your website 
  • By comparing A/B landing pages – Using heatmaps on alternate landing pages can show you why conversions are working or not working based on user activity on the page
  • By optimising across devices – See how your visitors are interacting with your content to learn how well optimised your website is for various devices and remove roadblocks 

  Heatmap analytics you need to improve website user experience

  Click heatmap

  Click heatmaps are useful for two key reasons.

  Firstly, it shows where website users are clicking. 

  Heatmaps that show clicks give you a visual representation of whether copy and CTA links are clear from the customers’ point of view. It can also show whether a customer is clicking on a design feature that doesn’t link anywhere. 

  Secondly, it shows where website users are not clicking. This is just as important when developing funnels and improving user experiences.

  For example, you may have a CTA button for a free trial or purchase. A click heatmap analysis would show if this isn’t clicked on mobile devices and informs developers that it needs to be more mobile-friendly.

  

  Mouse move or hover heatmap

  Like a click heatmap, a mouse hover heatmap shows how you can improve the overall user experience.

  For example, hover heatmaps identify where your visitors engage on a particular webpage. Ideally, of course, you want them to engage with CTAs. Analysing their mouse movements or where they are hovering for more information gives you an indication of any page elements that are distracting them or not working.

  

  Scroll heatmap

  A scroll heatmap uses colours to visualise how far down in a page your visitors scroll. For most web pages, the top will have the most impressions and will naturally get less views (i.e. get “colder” on the heatmap) further down the page. 

  This lets you find out if there is important content positioned too far down the page or if the page is designed to encourage users to keep scrolling.

  No matter how good your product or service is, it won’t convert if potential customers aren’t engaged and scrolling far enough to see it.

  

  Above the fold analysis 

  Above the fold is the content that a visitor sees without scrolling. 

  In a heatmap, the “Average Above the Fold” line will show you how much content your visitors see on average when they open your page. It also shows whether the page design is engaging, whether it encourages visitors to keep scrolling, and whether important information is too far down the page and therefore being missed. 

  Above the fold analysis is arguably the most important as this is the section that the highest number of traffic will see. Using this information ensures that the right content for conversion is seen by the highest number of visitors. 

  

  Session recording

  Session Recording lets you record a real visitor session, so you can see clicks, mouse movements, scrolls, window resizes, page changes, and form interactions all in one. 

  They allow you to understand the experience from the point of view of your visitor and then optimise your website to maximise your success.

  Heatmap software like Matomo takes this one step further and allows you to gather session recordings for individual segments. By analysing sessions based on segments, you can further personalise and optimise based on customer history and patterns.

  

  Final thoughts on heatmap software 

  Heatmap software improves your user experience by easily spotting critical issues that you can then address. 

  As well as that, heatmap analytics like clicks, mouse movement, scroll, above the fold analysis and session recordings increase your marketing ROI by making the most of your existing traffic. 

  It’s a win-win ! 

  Now that you know what heatmap software is, the benefits of using heatmaps on your website and how it can improve your user experience, check out this user guide on heatmap analytics. 

• Elacarte Presto Tablets

  14 mars 2013, par Multimedia Mike — General

  I visited an Applebee’s restaurant this past weekend. The first thing I spied was a family at a table with what looked like a 7-inch tablet. It’s not an uncommon sight. However, as I moved through the restaurant, I noticed that every single table was equipped with such a tablet. It looked like this :

  
  
  

  For a computer nerd like me, you could probably guess that I was be far more interested in this gadget than the cuisine. The thing said “Presto” on the front and “Elacarte” on the back. Putting this together, we get the website of Elacarte, the purveyors of this restaurant tablet technology. Months after the iPad was released on 2010, I remember stories about high-end restaurants showing their wine list via iPads. This tablet goes well beyond that.

  How was it ? Well, confusing, mostly. The hostess told us we could order through the tablet or through her. Since we already knew what we wanted, she just manually took our order and presumably entered it into the system. So, right away, the question is : Do we order through a human or through a computer ? Or a combination ? Do we have to use the tablet if we don’t want to ?

  Hardware
  When picking up the tablet, it’s hard not to notice that it is very heavy. At first, I suspected that it was deliberately weighted down as some minor attempt at an anti-theft measure. But then I remembered what I know about power budgets of phones and tablets– powering the screen accounts for much of the battery usage. I realized that this device needs to drive the screen for about 14 continuous hours each day. I.e., the weight must come from a massive battery.

  The screen is good. It’s a capacitive touchscreen, so nice and responsive. When I first spied the device, I felt certain it would be a resistive touchscreen (which is more accurately called a touch-and-press-down screen). There is an AC adapter on the side of the tablet. This is the only interface to the device :

  
  
  

  That looks to me like an internal SATA connector (different from an eSATA connector). Foolishly, I didn’t have a SATA cable on me so I couldn’t verify.

  User Interface
  The interface options are : Order, Games, Neighborhood, and Pay. One big benefit of accessing the menu through the Order option is that each menu item can have a picture. For people who order more by picture than text description, this is useful. Rather, it would be, if more items had pictures. I’m not sure there were more pictures than seen in the print menu.
  
  For Games, there were a variety of party games. The interface clearly stated that we got to play 2 free games. This implied to me that further games cost money. We tried one game briefly and the food came.

  2 more options : Neighborhood– I know I dug into this option, but I forget what it was. Maybe it discussed local attractions. Finally, Pay. This thing has an integrated credit card reader. There is no integrated printer, though, so if you want one, you will have to request one from a human.

  Experience
  So we ordered through a human since we didn’t feel like being thrust into this new paradigm when we just wanted lunch. The staff was obviously amenable to that. However, I got a chance to ask them a lot of questions about the particulars. Apparently, they have had this system for about 5 months. It was confirmed that the tablets do, in fact, have gargantuan batteries that have to last through the restaurant’s entire business hours. Do they need to be charged every night ? Yes, they do. But how ? The staff described this several large charging blocks with many cables sprouting out. Reportedly, some units still don’t make it through the entire day.

  When it was time to pay, I pressed the Pay button on the interface. The bill I saw had nothing in common with what we ordered (actually, it was cheaper, so perhaps I should have just accepted it). But I pointed it out to a human and they said that this happens sometimes. So they manually printed my bill. There was a dollar charge for the game that was supposed to be free. I pointed this out and they removed it. It’s minor, I know, but it’s still worth trying to work out these bugs.

  One of the staff also described how a restaurant doesn’t need to employ as many people thanks to the tablet. She gave a nervous, awkward, self-conscious laugh when she said this. All I could think of was this Dilbert comic strip in which the boss realizes that his smartphone could perform certain key functions previously handled by his assistant.

  Not A New Idea
  Some people might think this is a totally new concept. It’s not. I was immediately reminded of my university days in Boulder, Colorado, USA, circa 1997. The local Taco Bell and Arby’s restaurants both had touchscreen ordering kiosks. Step up, interact with the (probably resistive) touchscreen, get a number, and step to the counter to change money, get your food, and probably clarify your order because there is only so much that can be handled through a touchscreen.

  What I also remember is when they tore out those ordering kiosks, also circa 1997. I don’t know the exact reason. Maybe people didn’t like them. Maybe there were maintenance costs that made them not worth the hassle.

  Then there are the widespread self-checkout lanes in grocery stores. Personally, I like those, though I know many don’t. However, this restaurant tablet thing hasn’t won me over yet. What’s the difference ? Perhaps that automated lanes at grocery stores require zero external assistance– at least, if you do everything correctly. Personally, I work well with these lanes because I can pretty much guess the constraints of the system and I am careful not to confuse the computer in any way. Until they deploy serving droids, or at least food conveyors, there still needs to be some human interaction and I think the division between the human and computer roles is unintuitive in the restaurant case.

  I don’t really care to return to the same restaurant. I’ll likely avoid any other restaurant that has these tablets. For some reason, I think I’m probably supposed to be the ideal consumer of this concept. But the idea will probably perform all right anyway. Elacarte’s website has plenty of graphs demonstrating that deploying these tablets is extremely profitable.

• Winamp and the March of GUI

  1er juillet 2012, par Multimedia Mike — General, ars technica, gui, user interface, winamp

  Ars Technica recently published a 15-year retrospective on the venerable Winamp multimedia player, prompting bouts of nostalgia and revelations of "Huh ? That program is still around ?" from many readers. I was among them.

  
  
  

  I remember first using Winamp in 1997. I remember finding a few of these new files called MP3s online and being able to play the first 20 seconds using the official Fraunhofer Windows player— full playback required the fully licensed version. Then I searched for another player and came up with Winamp. The first version I ever used was v1.05 in the summer of 1997. I remember checking the website often for updates and trying out every single one. I can’t imagine doing that nowadays— programs need to auto-update themselves (which Winamp probably does now ; I can’t recall the last time I used the program).

  Video Underdog
  The last time Winamp came up on my radar was early in 2003 when a new version came with support for a custom, proprietary multimedia audio/video format called Nullsoft Video (NSV). I remember the timeframe because the date is indicated in the earliest revision of my NSV spec document (back when I was maintaining such docs in a series of plaintext files). This was cobbled together from details I and others in the open source multimedia community sorted out from sample files. It was missing quite a few details, though.

  Then, Winamp founder Justin Frankel — introduced through a colleague on the xine team — emailed me his official NSV format and told me I was free to incorporate details into my document just as long as it wasn’t obvious that I had the official spec. This put me in an obnoxious position of trying to incorporate details which would have been very difficult to reverse engineer without the official doc. I think I coped with the situation by never really getting around to updating my doc in any meaningful way. Then, one day, the official spec was released to the world anyway, and it is now mirrored here at multimedia.cx.

  I don’t think the format ever really caught on in any meaningful way, so not a big deal. (Anytime I say that about a format, I always learn it saw huge adoption is some small but vocal community.)

  What’s Wrong With This Picture ?
  What I really wanted to discuss in this post was the matter of graphical user interfaces and how they have changed in the last 15 years.
  
  I still remember when I first downloaded Winamp v1.05 and tried it on my Windows machine at the time. Indignantly, the first thought I had was, "What makes this program think it’s so special that it’s allowed to violate the user interface conventions put forth by the rest of the desktop ?" All of the Windows programs followed a standard set of user interface patterns and had a consistent look and feel... and then Winamp came along and felt it could violate all those conventions.

  I guess I let the program get away with it because it was either that or only play 20-second clips from the unregistered Fraunhofer player. Though incredibly sterile by comparison, the Fraunhofer player, it should be noted, followed Windows UI guidelines to the letter.

  As the summer of 1997 progressed and more Winamp versions were released, eventually one came out (I think it was v1.6 or so) that supported skins. I was excited because there was a skin that made the program look like a proper Windows program— at least if you used the default Windows color scheme, and had all of your fonts a certain type and size.

  Skins were implemented by packaging together a set of BMP images to overlay on various UI elements. I immediately saw a number of shortcomings with this skinning approach. A big one was UI lock-in. Ironically, if you skin an app and wish to maintain backwards compatibility with the thousands of skins selflessly authored by your vibrant community (seriously, I couldn’t believe how prolific these things were), then you were effectively locked into the primary UI. Forget about adding a new button anywhere.

  Another big problem was resolution-independence. Basing your UI on static bitmaps doesn’t scale well with various resolutions. Winamp had its normal mode and it also had double-sized mode.

  Skins proliferated among many types of programs in the late 1990s. I always treasured this Suck.com (remember them ? that’s a whole other nostalgia trip) essay from April, 2000 entitled Skin Cancer. Still, Winamp was basically the standard, and the best, and I put away my righteous nerd rage and even dug through the vast troves of skins. I remember settling on Swankamp for a good part of 1998, probably due to the neo-swing revival at the time.

  
  
  

  Then again, if Winamp irked me, imagine my reaction when I was first exposed to the Sonique Music Player in 1998 :

  
  
  

  The New UI Order
  Upon reflection, I realize now that I had a really myopic view of what a computer GUI should be. I thought the GUIs were necessarily supposed to follow the WIMP (windows, icons, mouse, pointer) paradigm and couldn’t conceive of anything different. For a long time, I couldn’t envision a useful GUI on a small device (like a phone) because WIMP didn’t fit well on such a small interface (even though I saw various ill-fated attempts to make it work). This thinking seriously crippled me when I was trying to craft a GUI for a custom console media player I was developing as a hobby many years ago.

  I’m looking around at what I have open on my Windows 7 desktop right now. Google Chrome browser, Apple iTunes, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and VMware Player are 4 programs which all seem to have their own skins. Maybe Winamp doesn’t look so out of place these days.