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Heatmaps and Visual Analytics for Website Optimization

via Nielsen Norman Group

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Every day, users visit your website and leave behind clues about where and how they interact. These behavioral signals can reveal what people are trying to do and where friction might be holding them back.

Syllabus

What you will learn

Interpret heatmaps to identify behaviors and pain points

Spot patterns using click, scroll, move, and revenue heatmaps
Learn what different click behaviors reveal about intent and friction
Understand the strengths and limitations of AI-generated heatmaps
Combine pages into templates and account for sample size

Combine methods to validate and strengthen findings

Triangulate heatmaps with session replays, funnels, and form analytics to build confidence in your findings
Understand the strengths and limitations of visual analytics, and when to use other methods

Build an investigatory mindset to uncover deeper insight

Ask deeper questions of your data to guide exploration and next steps
Select the right methods for the question you’re trying to answer

Inform content and design decisions

Optimize content hierarchy based on engagement signals
Maximize campaign impact by understanding content reach
Uncover content gaps where users expect to interact
Identify friction in funnels and forms to improve conversion rates

Prioritize findings to maximize impact

Use atomic research principles to turn observations into insight
Apply objective prioritization frameworks to decide what to fix first
This course does not provide instructions for setting up or using specific visual analytics tools.
This course dives deep into heatmaps and visual analytics. For a general introduction to web analytics, consider our complementary Analytics and User Experience course.