What is a Heatmap? How They Work, What They're Used For & Examples

Website heatmaps display website data in graphic form, usually represented by different colors, and generally depict how users engage with different parts of a website.

Heatmaps are a valuable tool when it comes to visualizing and understanding how customers react to and interact with your content. 

Heatmap analytics are represented graphically, making the data easy to digest and understand. Customer attention is represented by color, with the most popular areas of content said to be hot whilst the least popular are said to be cold. Heatmaps help businesses understand user behavior and how people interact with content.

For example, a website heatmap will show which aspects grab users’ attention, what they click on, how they scroll, and which parts of the content they ignore. Research shows that users spend 80% of their time looking at content above the fold. This information can help businesses identify trends and optimize content to increase engagement and conversion. 

How do Heatmaps Work?

Heatmaps work by using colors to represent data. Here’s a simple breakdown of how they function:

• Data Collection: First, data is gathered. For example, on a website, tools track where users click or how far they scroll.
• Color Coding: The data is then turned into a visual map. Warm colors like red and orange show high activity or intensity, while cool colors like blue and green show low activity.
• Visualization: The map is displayed, making it easy to spot patterns. For instance, a red area on a website heatmap means lots of clicks, while a blue area means fewer clicks.
• Analysis: Users study the heatmap to understand trends. This helps them make better decisions, like improving a website design or focusing on high-traffic areas.

What are the Different Types of Heatmaps?

You can categorize heatmaps into several broad categories. Let’s discuss the different types of heatmaps and give examples of how they can be used. Here is the heatmap categorizing and hierarchy:

1. Interaction Heatmaps (User Engagement-Based)

• Click Maps 
• Mouse Move Maps
• Scroll Maps

2. Attention Heatmaps (User Focus-Based)

• Eye-Tracking Heatmaps 
• Predictive Attention Heatmaps 

3. General Heatmap Visualization Types (Applicable Across Categories)

• Clustered Heatmaps 
• Correlogram 
• Grayscale Heatmaps 
• Rainbow Heatmaps

Interaction Heatmaps

Interaction heatmaps measure active engagement on a webpage, allowing you to see the type of interaction users have with your website. They can measure mouse movements, clicks, and scrolls, giving you an in-depth understanding of how consumers use your website. 

• Click Maps

Click maps provide a graphical representation of where users click. This includes mouse clicks on desktop devices and finger taps on mobile devices. Click maps allow you to see which elements of your webpage are being clicked on and which are being ignored. 

• Mouse Move Maps

Research shows a strong correlation between where a user moves their mouse and where their attention lies on a webpage. Mouse move maps track where users move their mouse as they navigate a webpage. This gives you a clear indication of where users are looking as they interact with your webpage. 

• Scroll Maps

Scroll maps help you visualize how visitors to your website scroll through your web pages. They do this by visually representing how many visitors scroll down to any point on the page. The hotter an area is, the more users see it. This can help you position your calls to action where you know they will be seen. 

Due to their nature, interaction heatmaps can only be used on interactive content such as websites and mobile apps. A different type of heatmap is required for non-interactive content. 

Attention Heatmaps

Many types of content aren’t interactive, so they can’t be analyzed using interaction heatmaps. This includes packaging design, advertising, shopper marketing, social media, and video content. This is where attention heatmaps excel. 

Attention heatmaps can be used on websites and non-interactive content. They allow you to visualize a consumer’s attention as they look at your content, discovering where their eyes move and which aspects of your content grasp the consumer’s attention.

There are two types of attention heatmaps: eye-tracking heatmaps and predictive attention heatmaps. 

1. Eye Tracking Heatmaps

Eye-tracking heatmaps collect primary data to visualize how a sample audience views your content. Eye movements and fixation durations are measured to understand how consumers see your content accurately. Here's how they work:

• Special devices track eye movements as people look at content.
• The system records where the eyes focus and for how long.
• This data is turned into a colorful map.
• Red areas show where people looked the most.
• Blue or green areas show less viewed spots.

These maps help businesses understand what catches people's attention. For example, Netflix used eye-tracking heatmaps to improve its user interface. This led to a significant increase in viewer engagement with its content recommendations. 

2. Predictive Attention Heatmaps

Predictive attention heatmaps use artificial intelligence to predict where a typical audience would likely look when viewing your content. The data is displayed as a heatmap, providing a graphical representation of consumer attention. 

Predictive attention heatmaps also measure saliency to determine attention by predicting how a typical user will interact with content without requiring a live test audience. 

Here’s how they work:

• AI and Data: The system uses AI and past data to predict eye movements. It learns from how people have looked at similar images or designs before.
• Simulation: The AI creates a heatmap without needing real users. It shows which areas will likely grab attention, using warm colors for high focus and cool colors for low focus.
• Testing Designs: Designers use these heatmaps to test layouts, ads, or products before they go live. This helps them make changes early to improve engagement.

For example, predictive heatmaps can help create better website designs or ads that catch the eye quickly. Studies show that designs optimized with predictive heatmaps can increase user engagement by up to 20%.  

Eye Tracking Heatmaps vs Predictive Attention Heatmaps

The table below compares some of the advantages and disadvantages of the two types of attention heatmaps. 

Clustered Heatmap

A clustered heatmap groups similar data sets together to show patterns and relationships. It is commonly used in data analysis to organize information into meaningful clusters. The heat values in a clustered heatmap are arranged based on similarity, making it easier to spot trends. Here are a few common uses of clustered heatmaps:

• Business Intelligence: Helps companies analyze sales, revenue, and customer trends.
• Healthcare: Used for studying gene expression and patient data.
• Marketing: Identifies customer segments with similar behaviors.

A clustered heatmap is useful when working with large amounts of raw data, as it helps group related data points for better insights.

Correlogram

A correlogram is a heatmap showing the relationship between different variables. It uses a color scheme to represent positive or negative correlations, helping users understand how strongly two factors are related. Common uses of correlogram include:

• Finance and Stock Markets: Helps traders analyze relationships between stock prices.
• Website Heatmaps: Measures the correlation between site traffic and user actions.
• Scientific Research: Used by data scientists to study connections between variables in complex studies.

Correlograms are powerful visualization techniques that simplify complex relationships, making them easier to interpret.

Grayscale Heatmap

A grayscale heatmap represents data using black, white, and gray shades. Darker shades typically indicate higher data points, while lighter shades represent lower values. Since it avoids multiple colors, it provides a clear, distraction-free view of the information. Grayscale Heatmaps are often preferred when precision and simplicity are required. Greyscale Heatmaps can be used in:

• Medical imaging: Doctors use grayscale heatmaps to analyze X-rays and MRI scans.
• Data visualization: Researchers use them for reports where color is not needed.
• Printing: Grayscale heatmaps work well for documents without color printing.

Rainbow Heatmap

A rainbow heatmap uses multiple colors, such as blue, green, yellow, orange, and red, to show variations in heat values. Cooler colors like blue represent lower values, while warmer colors like red indicate higher intensity. 

This type of color map is visually striking and can make it easier to see differences in large data sets. However, color perception differences can sometimes make interpreting a rainbow heatmap challenging. They are used for: 

• Weather maps: Meteorologists use rainbow heatmaps to show temperature or rainfall.
• Website heatmaps: Businesses track user behavior using rainbow-colored click maps.
• Sports analytics: Football analysts use spatial heatmaps to study player movement.

Image source

Choosing between grayscale and rainbow Heatmaps depends on the context and the level of detail required for the data analysis.

Real-World Case Studies: How Heatmaps Drive Success

Here is a real-world example of how a business can use heatmap analytics to make smarter decisions and achieve measurable results.

How The New York Times Increased Reader Engagement

The New York Times, a leading digital news platform, wanted to improve reader engagement and optimize ad placements. Readers spent less time on articles, and ad engagement rates were lower than expected. The publication needed insights into how users interacted with content.

Solution

The New York Times implemented heatmaps to track scrolling behavior and click patterns. The data revealed that:

• Readers spent more time on the first 30% of an article before engagement dropped.
• Sidebar ads received minimal attention compared to inline ads within the article.
• Longer paragraphs led to higher bounce rates.

Using these insights, they:

• Reformatted articles with shorter paragraphs and more subheadings for better readability.
• Moved ads within the article body instead of relying on the sidebar.
• Placed interactive elements (such as “Read Next” recommendations) higher up the page.

Results

These changes led to an increase in reader engagement and boosted their ad revenue. This proves that content structure plays a key role in user experience.

When to Use Heatmap Data Analytics

Heatmaps help capture customer attention in websites, packaging, advertising, and in-store promotions. Here are five common uses:

1. Websites

Heatmap analytics optimize website design by revealing user behavior. Website heatmaps track clicks, scrolling, and attention, helping businesses improve the path-to-purchase and boost conversion rates. Predictive analytics and A/B testing identify the best landing page designs for higher engagement. Website heatmaps also work well with Google Analytics for deeper insights.

2. Packaging and Product Design

Packaging is a product’s first impression. Heatmap analytics ensure key messages stand out, improving brand recall and boosting sales. They can also identify which colors attract attention first. A/B tests compare packaging designs, speeding up testing cycles and reducing costs.

It could be used to understand user behaviors, such as which color catches the eye first.

3. Video Content

Video heatmaps provide valuable insights into viewer engagement by tracking where attention drops or spikes throughout a video. Marketers can use this data to refine storytelling, optimize video length, and strategically place calls to action (CTAs) where they are most likely to drive conversions. 

Heatmaps also reveal which parts of a video are most engaging. This helps brands create more compelling content that resonates with their audience. 

4. In-Store Promotions and Shopper Experience

Retailers invest heavily in in-store promotions, and heatmaps help validate campaign effectiveness. By understanding how shoppers move and interact in-store, businesses can place promotions where they’ll get the most attention, making visual merchandising more effective and boosting sales.

5. On-Shelf Attention and Product Placement

Gerald Zaltman, a professor at Harvard Business School, mentions that 95% of purchasing decisions are made subconsciously. But how can you tap into that subconscious and ensure your products sell? 

Predictive heatmap analytics can measure your share of attention on the shelf. It can also help maximize your brand exposure and give your products the best chance of winning attention. With heatmap marketing, you’ll learn how your product design impacts its performance, enabling you to make changes that increase sales. 

Retailers also use heatmaps to measure in-store promotions and customer movement patterns. This helps businesses place promotions in the most visible areas, improving visual merchandising ROI and increasing sales.

6. Sports and Gaming

Heatmaps help coaches and analysts track player movements to refine strategies and improve performance. They reveal high-activity zones, enabling better defensive and offensive planning. 

In gaming, developers use them to optimize level design, balance difficulty, and enhance user experience by analyzing player interactions. Heatmaps also help detect bottlenecks in gameplay, ensuring smoother navigation and engagement.

7. Urban Planning and Traffic Management

Cities use heatmaps to study traffic patterns, reduce congestion, and improve road planning. They identify accident-prone areas, helping authorities implement targeted safety measures. 

Law enforcement relies on heatmaps to detect crime hotspots, allocate resources effectively, and enhance public safety. Urban planners also use them to optimize public transport routes based on commuter density and movement trends.

How to Understand Heatmaps

Heatmaps are often favored for their easy-to-digest design. However, they may appear quite complicated initially, especially if you’ve never seen a heatmap.

We’ll talk you through three tips to help you understand heatmaps.  

1. Understand the Color Palette

Understanding the color palette is crucial when interpreting a heatmap. Typically, red indicates the most popular (hot) elements, while blue represents the least popular (cold) ones. However, color schemes can vary across different tools, so always verify the palette used to ensure accurate interpretation.

2. How to Read a Heatmap

Once you understand the color palette of your heatmap, you’ll be able to see which areas are most popular and which are lacking in attention. If a call to action lacks attention, you may need to move it to an area with higher attention for a better chance of conversion.  

3. Beyond Heatmaps: Metrics vs Colours

Heatmaps provide a valuable way to quickly visualize and digest a large amount of data. However, sometimes, you need to move from colors to quantifiable metrics. This is particularly useful when you’re comparing performance across multiple pieces of content. 

Which Metrics Are Used to Analyze Heatmaps?

When you begin to delve deeper into your heatmap, you’ll need to understand the metrics used for analysis. This will give you a deeper understanding of the data behind your heatmap and a clear insight into consumer behavior. 

We use three key metrics to analyze attention heatmaps at Dragonfly AI. These include: 

• Probability of Perception (PoP) 
• Share of Attention (SoA) 

• Location Attention Score (LAS) 

Each of these metrics will give you different insights into your content, giving you a detailed understanding of how consumers are viewing your content. 

Probability of Perception (PoP)

Probability of Perception, also known as PoP, estimates the percentage of consumers likely to notice an element at first glance.

PoP can help you ensure that the most important elements of your content are seen first while ensuring that less essential elements don’t take that attention. 

Share of Attention (SoA)

Share of Attention, also known as SoA, estimates the percentage of attention that is given to each individual element of your content. This enables you to compare the relative performance of multiple elements within your content. 

You can use SoA to ensure that the most essential elements within your content are getting the most attention. It can also help you to identify less critical areas that might be attracting too much attention, allowing you to soften these elements to make them less distracting. 

Local Attention Score (LAS)

Location Attention Score, also known as LAS, estimates the average level of the saliency of each area of an element within your content. This helps you to understand how attention-grabbing each area of an element is.

LAS is calculated by dividing each element into equally sized squares, each rated for prominence. The data generated through LAS can help you assess the effectiveness of each element of your content.   

How to Make Decisions Based on Your Heatmap

Heatmaps can provide you with a wealth of information about your content's performance. This information can then be used to inform decisions to increase engagement and improve conversion rates. 

Content that is too Cold

The first thing to look for on your heatmap is where important content is colder than you want it to be. If your content is too cold, it won’t get the attention it deserves. This is particularly problematic if the cold area is a call to action.

If your call-to-action button isn’t getting enough traffic due to its positioning on the screen, your heatmap will help you move it into a place with higher traffic, where it is more likely to drive conversions. 

Content that is too Hot

Do you know that your content can also be too hot? You want your visitors to be looking at the principal visual elements, such as your key messaging and your call to action. However, you may find that users are becoming distracted by other elements on the screen, which are taking their attention away from your primary call to action.

If users are becoming distracted by less important design elements, you may need to soften or remove these to reduce distraction and help direct attention to where you want it to be. 

A/B and MVT (Multi-Variant Testing)

Heatmaps are an extremely useful tool for comparing different variations of content. They can help you understand which version will perform better, ensuring you get it right the first time.

Whether it’s a landing page or product packaging, A/B testing allows you to test version A versus version B. In contrast, multi-variant testing allows multiple concepts to be tested to discover the most effective. 

Keeping the Clarity

To avoid confusing your viewers, your content should have a clear visual hierarchy that guides them naturally through the information. Your viewer should be able to interpret a well-designed piece of content in seconds.

You can use your heatmap to identify any areas of confusion. If you notice more than five hotspots in one area, or if the hotspots appear to be merging, your content may likely confuse your viewers. In this case, it’s a good idea to adapt the design to improve clarity. 

Increase Conversions Based on Heatmap Insights

Heatmaps provide a powerful insight into how consumers interact with your content. They can help you make informed, data-driven decisions to improve attention and increase conversion rates, whether you’re redesigning your website, improving your video content, or optimizing in-store displays.

Dragonfly AI is consistently improving thanks to ongoing research led by our chief scientist. Our data is reliable, easy to use, and can be integrated into your current ecosystem. Let’s talk about how we can work with you to increase conversions!