.Justin Palmer writes a
Web usability blog and
offers
do it your self SEO services and
e-Commerce
store tips.
Just the other night, my wife wanted to buy a purse on an eCommerce site that I have done extensive work for. Just out of
curiosity, I decided to stand behind her and watch her interact with the
website. As I jotted down notes as she went about shopping, I began to notice
things I had never considered before. She tried clicking on things that weren't
intended to be clicked on. Certain areas of the pages caught her attention that
I didn't consider noteworthy. I was surprised by how much I learned from this
simple situation. As I thought about it, I realized that my Google Analytics are
not telling me the whole story.In my opinion, traditional web analytics fail
in the following areas:
Failure to Record Micro-Actions: Regular analytic software does not show
your the actions that occur in between page views such as the movement of the
mouse or interactions with web forms.
- Failure to Track Eye Movement:
Obviously, web analytics does not have the ability to show us where web users
are actually looking. Eye tracking studies tell us that people typically read in
an "F" pattern, reading from left to right and scanning down. - Clicks on non-linked elements: Most analytics software does not show
you when users click on elements that are not hyperlinks. For example, you may
notice that user click on all underlined text or small images because they
expect them to be links. - Failure to Show Intent: Web analytics only show us where the user has gone, not where they intended to go.
Just because the user clicked on the Help page, doesn't mean they necessarily
found the information there relevant to what they need.
When you begin to watch a user actually engage a website, you pick up on clues that you would never have learned from your analytics. You notice when they are lost. You notice when they are frustrated. You notice when they want to click on something that wasn't
intended to be clicked on. Hopefully, future web analytics software will address
these problems.
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