In-app analytics solutions like UXCam often boast of having heatmaps in their lineup of tools, but what are mobile app heatmaps, why are they such a great tool to have, and how can you start using them?
Users today have a large variety of options for their mobile apps.
Google Play alone has nearly 5 million apps. The Apple App Store has more than 4.3 million.
In such a competitive market, you need to know your audience and how it uses your app.
88% of online users are less likely to return to your site or app if they have had a negative experience.
So how do you ensure that the user experience is ideal? And how do you know what to work on to enhance the UX?
It is unlikely that you will sit next to your users while using your app, so how do you see what they are experiencing?
Touch heatmaps are one of the best tools for getting inside your users’ heads and understanding their behavior on your app.
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What Are Heatmaps?
In short, mobile app heatmaps are a visual overlay of an array of colors to represent user interactions.
Heatmaps represent the average user activity, which allows you to see what elements get the most attention.
The human eye can comprehend these colors effortlessly and much quicker than humans can analyze a set of numbers.
Heatmaps aggregate large numbers of data from users and compile it in a way that allows us to quickly and accurately conclude from the results.
For this reason, heatmaps are best used in large groups of data and show us extremes — either where the most or the least amount of activity is.
How Heatmaps Can Help You
So we have covered what heatmaps are, but why do you want them? What can they do for you?
Optimize Your Mobile App Interface
A visually appealing and easy-to-use app will bring customers in and keep them coming back.
With heatmaps, you can see what gets the most attention from users and what gets overlooked. In doing so, you gain a better idea of what users want from your app.
UXCam’s heatmap solution captures sophisticated gestures such as long-press, trail and zoom gestures.
Perhaps users are trying to click on a word or image that is not clickable. If this is the case, it would be an excellent opportunity to add a link to this area to bring the users closer to what they are looking for.
Create a Better User Experience
Let’s take a closer look at a scenario from UXCam.
A company that uses UXCam — let’s call them Photos Inc. — uses heatmaps to understand user behavior. The result is the following:
Based on the results, we can see that the login page of Photo Inc. is okay but perhaps not ideal for its users. Heatmaps show us that most users log in with a Facebook account instead of an email address.
To increase user login and improve the user experience, Photo Inc. has to move its Facebook login button to the top of the list of options.
By doing this, the Facebook sign-in becomes more prominent and moves the email sign-in to second on the list. The first impression of users is related to design in 94% of the cases.
Just that little change could spiral into major improvements for Photo Inc. What improvements could you make to your app?
Increase Conversions
A call to action (CTA for short) is only useful if your readers see it and tap on it. If no one sees your CTA because it’s too far down the page or it’s in an odd place, then you will see a drop in user onboarding.
If users are attempting to click on an area that isn’t linked, you may consider putting a CTA in a high-traffic area that would otherwise be wasted.
Mobile heatmaps are an essential tool to identify the problems that your users are facing. See where your users are getting hung up in the process and where they abandon it.
Does your app need to include more directions for the users? Maybe there’s something that could be simpler? Perhaps you are asking for too much too soon.
Whatever the problem, it should be taken care of right away. By meeting the needs of your users, you also encourage them to use your app more. Mobile app heatmaps are a fantastic tool that can save you time, money and even a headache or two!
Best Tool for Mobile App Heatmaps
UXCam is the market leader for mobile app heatmaps.
It supports native iOS, Android, ReactNative, PhoneGap/Cordova, Xamarin and Flutter.
Heatmaps are just one of the many features that UXCam offers:
UXCam integrates easily and quickly into any app. Where other analysis apps may affect your performance, UXCam is lightweight, with no performance penalty.
It also integrates with other programs you may use, such as Adobe Analytics, Firebase Crashlytics and more.
UXCam offers a risk-free trial.
Get started with UXCam for free now.
FAQ:
What are mobile app heatmaps?
Mobile app heatmaps are specifically designed to work on iOS or Android mobile apps. They show which elements of your app get the most engagement.
How do mobile app heatmaps work?
To use mobile app heatmaps, you first have to install the UXCam SDK. The SDK captures usage data, which then gets used to generate heatmaps for your app.
How do you read mobile app heatmaps?
You should segment your app heatmaps based on specific gestures. This will help you to perform a detailed analysis.
