May 15, 2019
Peering inside your customer's mind: Using Usability tracking
In this article:
We build websites armed with the knowledge of who the ideal website visitor is and what they want to do. But, the theory is different from practice, and sometimes you need to understand the problem from the users perspective. That's where usability tracking comes in. Usability tracking is a great tool for getting inside your customer's mind while they're navigating through your website.Sometimes people act in a way that's different from what you anticipated, your website won't be performing at the level you're expecting and you will want to know why. Usability tracking is a great way to get the insights you require in all these areas.- What is usability tracking?
- Comparing usability tracking to Google Analytics
- What does usability tracking tell you?
- What usability tracking won't tell you
- What does the output look like?
- What is the most useful information you get from usability tracking?
- When you should consider using usability tracking?
What is usability tracking?
Usability tracking is a plug-in capability for your website that gives you a more granular view of website usage compared to Google Analytics.Usability tracking systems hook into your website and capture key information from the user as they click through your website. This includes, click, scrolls, and browsing history.Comparing usability tracking to Google Analytics
While completely different solutions, usability tracking and Google Analytics have a common purpose - they understand the behaviour of the customer. While more people will have exposure to Google Analytics, usability tracking is easier to wrap your head around. Unlike the endless reports and views in Analytics, usability tracking is far more straight forward.Usability tracking | Google analytics |
Shows the individual journeys of users on your website | Shows the aggregate performance of users across your website |
Per-element level granularity (deeper) | Page level granularity (broader) |
Small number of specific interactions tracked (click, scroll, browse) | Hundreds of different statistics gathered spread across hundreds of screens. |
What does usability tracking tell you?
With usability tracking, you can see:- How deep into the page users have scrolled
- Page engagement (click capture)
- Video's of users browsing your website
- Form burn-down completion
What usability tracking won't tell you
While usability tracking is great, it's not a perfect reflection of the customer experience. You can determine how simple or difficult the process may be, but the critical missing piece is the user's impressions and satisfaction with the process.Usability tracking as outlines doesn't provide great aggregate statistics of the website performance. You can extract page scroll depth statistics on a page level. But in terms of click engagement and following the user flow, the results are less easily translated in a fixed score or success rate - for this, you would rely on Google Analytics.Products available
For entry-level engagement, we recommend Crazy Egg. It is relatively easy to set up and provides some interesting insights almost straight away.Competing productsWhat does the output look like?
HeatmapConfetti click mapScroll mapUser journey videoThe benefits of usability tracking
Scroll depth- Scroll depth isn't a fantastic measure of content engagement, as you will find that people get the gist of a page very quickly and move on.
Symptom | Possible conclusion |
Click on a piece of text content | People are engaged with the content. |
Lots of clicking in a blank section of the site | The website capture has not worked 100%, and this section is being delayed. Requires a look at how the website is loading. |
Lots of clicks in the menu, little to no on page clicking | People know what they are looking for rather than browsing. |
When should you consider using usability tracking?
Usability tracking is a good option to consider:- After you have reviewed and implemented fixes for common practice problems
- For system usage, and complicated workflows