An activity heatmap is a visual chart that uses colour intensity to show where and when users concentrate their actions. Darker or warmer colours indicate higher activity; lighter or cooler colours show lower activity. Teams use activity heatmaps to spot patterns fast: popular interface elements, common paths, busy time windows, or dead zones that need attention.
Why use an activity heatmap?
You use an activity heatmap to compress thousands of interactions into a picture you can grasp in seconds. It helps you prioritise improvements, validate hypotheses, and communicate findings to non‑specialists. Decisions move faster because you can point to evidence rather than debate opinions.
What types of activity heatmaps exist?
Different problems call for different heatmaps. Pick the one that fits your question.
Spatial (on‑page or in‑app) activity heatmaps
Spatial heatmaps overlay colour on a screen, page, or view to show where users click, tap, scroll, move the cursor, or focus. They answer questions like “Which button draws the most attention?” or “Do people think that label is clickable?” Common variants:
- Click or tap maps: show discrete interactions on elements and empty space.
- Scroll maps: show how far down users scroll and where they stop.
- Cursor movement maps: approximate attention on desktop; helpful for content layout.
- Rage‑click and dead‑click maps: highlight confusion where people click rapidly or on non‑interactive areas.
Temporal (time‑series) activity heatmaps
Temporal heatmaps map activity across time on two axes (for example, hour of day by day of week). They expose rhythms like “Support chat spikes Mondays 09:00–11:00” or “Checkout attempts cluster after 20:00 local time.” Use them to plan staffing, cache warm‑ups, or batch jobs to avoid peak load.
Grid or matrix activity heatmaps
Grid heatmaps display metric intensity across categorical pairs, such as feature by customer segment, or lesson module by student. They reveal which combinations over‑ or under‑perform so you can target changes precisely.
Funnel or step heatmaps
These highlight activity at each stage of a flow (signup, verification, onboarding task). They combine conversion data with intensity to show where people concentrate effort yet stall, guiding you to streamline those steps.
How does an activity heatmap work?
An activity heatmap starts with events. Your app or site emits events whenever users act: clicks, taps, views, form submissions, or custom actions like “create project.” The analytics tool records event properties (element, timestamp, user id, device, viewport). It then aggregates counts or rates over a grid:
- Spatial: the grid is pixel buckets or element IDs.
- Temporal: the grid is time buckets (minute, hour) crossed with calendar categories (day, week).
- Matrix: the grid is category pairs (feature x plan, lesson x student).
The tool assigns a colour to each cell based on a scale (linear, logarithmic, or quantile) and renders a heatmap tile for each cell.
What metrics can an activity heatmap show?
Pick metrics that match your goal.
- Raw counts: clicks, taps, views, hovers, submissions.
- Rates: click‑through rate (CTR), error rate, abandonment rate.
- Engagement: dwell time on element, time to first action, scroll depth percentile.
- Friction signals: rage clicks, dead clicks, repeated submissions, validation errors.
- Quality outcomes: success vs failure, completion within target time.
- Load or capacity: requests per second per endpoint or page.
When should you use an activity heatmap?
Use an activity heatmap when you need pattern awareness, not precision point estimates.
- Triage UX issues after a redesign.
- Prioritise backlog items by impact hotspots.
- Compare behaviour across segments (new vs returning; free vs paid).
- Plan staffing for support or ops around peak activity hours.
- Diagnose content that’s unseen due to placement or fold depth.
- Track adoption of a new feature without reading dozens of charts.
Skip heatmaps when you need causal proof or controlled comparisons. Then run an A/B test and use statistical analysis.
How to interpret colours and scales
Make the colour scale explicit, because scale choices change the story.
- Linear: equal data steps map to equal colour steps. Good for evenly spread counts.
- Logarithmic: compresses big differences; useful when a few cells dominate.
- Quantile: splits cells into equal‑sized groups; good for ranking and for data with long tails.
- Diverging: centres on a baseline (e.g., zero change) with two hues; use for deltas or anomalies.
Choose palettes with sufficient contrast and colour‑blind safety. A red‑to‑green palette often causes issues; prefer blue‑to‑orange or purple‑to‑yellow with tested accessibility.
Where do activity heatmaps get their data?
You can collect data in three common ways.
- Client‑side snippets: JavaScript or SDKs capture clicks, taps, scrolls, and DOM context. Quick to ship; validate for performance and privacy.
- Server‑side events: record business events (checkout started, invoice paid). Combine with client events to connect intent to outcome.
- Logs and session replay: translate logs or replay sessions into aggregates. Useful when you must audit or sample selectively.
Align timestamps to the user’s time zone for temporal heatmaps. For global products, render views per region to avoid mixing morning and midnight activity.
Common use cases with mini‑examples
- Button placement: A “Start free trial” button shows 62% of clicks on a secondary, less visible instance in the footer. Move or emphasise the primary button to reclaim attention.
- Form friction: Rage‑click hotspots cluster on a disabled “Continue” button. Investigate validation messaging and auto‑advance to reduce errors.
- Content discovery: Scroll maps show only 35% reach a key pricing comparison below the fold on 1366×768 screens. Lift the table higher or add an intra‑page link.
- Feature adoption: A matrix of feature x plan shows “Bulk edit” is used mainly by Pro accounts in EMEA. Promote it in onboarding for SMB Americas where usage lags.
- Ops planning: A day‑of‑week by hour heatmap shows sign‑ups spike Sunday 18:00–22:00 local. Schedule database maintenance outside that window.
How to create an activity heatmap
Ship a basic version in under a day with the following steps.
1) Define the goal. Name the decision the heatmap will inform: “Prioritise homepage changes” or “Staff support chat.”
2) Choose the heatmap type. Spatial for UI placement; temporal for peaks; matrix for features vs segments.
3) Instrument events. Track at least: element identifier, event type, timestamp, user or session id, device, screen size. Add properties like plan or region if you’ll segment.
4) Bucket the data. Decide pixel grid size (e.g., 16×16) or element keys; choose time buckets (hour) and ranges (last 28 days).
5) Pick the scale and palette. Start with linear and a colour‑blind safe palette; switch to log if a few cells dominate.
6) Filter and segment. Exclude bots and staff. Split by device or new vs returning for extra insight.
7) Render and annotate. Overlay the map on the UI screenshot or component tree. Label notable hotspots with short notes.
8) Validate with sessions or events. Spot‑check a few sessions or raw logs where the heatmap shows surprises.
9) Decide and act. Create tickets tied to hotspots and define success metrics for follow‑up.
Best practices that prevent misreads
- Focus on a single question per heatmap. Mixing goals blurs signals.
- Use enough data. Aim for at least several hundred sessions per view to avoid noise.
- Segment wisely. Split by device and screen size; mobile and desktop patterns differ.
- Respect element visibility. Don’t count clicks on hidden or off‑screen elements.
- Treat cursor heatmaps as approximate attention. Validate with scroll, clicks, and outcomes.
- Use comparable time windows. Week‑over‑week with the same days avoids holiday bias.
- Annotate releases and campaigns. Spikes often align with launches or emails.
- Pair with outcomes. Hotspots without conversion context can mislead; tie activity to success or failure.
Pitfalls and how to avoid them
- The “hot equals good” trap: A hot area might reflect confusion (rage clicks) rather than success. Cross‑check with error events.
- Over‑aggregation: Large buckets hide detail. If a button has split hitboxes, element‑level maps beat pixel grids.
- Survivorship bias: Scroll maps can over‑represent engaged users; show the percentage of all visitors reaching each depth.
- Palette bias: Red implies danger. If the chart isn’t about risk, use neutral hues to reduce emotional bias.
- DOM instability: Dynamic pages change element IDs. Use stable selectors or data attributes to avoid mismatches.
- Consent and privacy gaps: Don’t record keystrokes in free‑text fields. Mask or exclude sensitive data by default.
Privacy, compliance, and ethics
Collect only what you need. Mask PII in forms, hash IDs where possible, and honour opt‑out choices. Store raw events securely and limit retention. For regulated sectors (finance, health, education), disable keystroke capture and session replay on sensitive screens. If you use activity heatmaps in classrooms or learning platforms, notify learners and explain the benefit (for example, teachers use heatmaps to identify modules where a class struggles, then adjust the pace). Responsible use builds trust and reduces legal risk.
Accessibility considerations
A heatmap must communicate beyond colour. Add numeric values on hover or tap and include text labels for screen readers. Choose palettes that meet contrast guidelines and provide a monochrome option. Ensure the overlay doesn’t obstruct critical content when viewed in context. Test with keyboard‑only navigation inside the analytics interface so all colleagues can use the tool.
How do activity heatmaps relate to other visualisations?
- Bar and line charts: Better for exact comparisons and trends over time. Use alongside heatmaps for precise metrics.
- Scatter plots: Good for relationships between two continuous variables; heatmaps excel when the grid is categorical or spatial.
- Choropleth maps: A geographic heatmap; use when location matters (region by metric).
- Tree maps: Visualise part‑to‑whole in nested blocks; not spatial to the UI itself.
Heatmaps are complementary. Use them to find patterns, then quantify with charts that provide exact numbers and variance.
How to compare two heatmaps
When you redesign a page, pair “before” and “after” maps on the same scale.
- Fix the time window and sample size. Compare equal numbers of sessions to avoid volume bias.
- Lock the colour scale. Dynamic scales can make both maps look “hot”; use a shared legend with exact thresholds.
- Align element references. If you change IDs or layouts, map old to new elements manually so comparisons remain valid.
- Add a delta view. A diverging heatmap showing increases vs decreases highlights meaningful shifts.
Quantifying impact from a heatmap insight
Move from a visual observation to a measurable outcome in three steps.
1) Translate the hotspot into a hypothesis: “Users click the non‑interactive label because the icon looks like a button.”
2) Design a change: “Make the icon secondary and add an actual button next to the label.”
3) Measure the outcome: Track completion rate of the action, time to completion, and error rate pre‑ and post‑change. A simple rolling baseline or an A/B test gives confidence.
Choosing the right granularity
Granularity controls noise and insight.
- Pixel bucket size for spatial maps: Start at 16–24 pixels; reduce to 8–12 pixels for dense UIs.
- Time buckets for temporal maps: Hours suit daily rhythm; five‑minute buckets for ops alerts; days for long‑cycle behaviour.
- Category bins for matrix maps: Keep both axes under ~30 categories for legibility; group long tails into “Other.”
If the map looks uniformly warm or cold, adjust the bucket size or switch to a log scale to restore contrast.
Device and viewport effects
People behave differently on mobile and desktop. On mobile:
- Tap targets cluster lower on the screen due to thumb reach.
- Scroll depth is more volatile across devices with varied viewport heights.
- Hover‑based cues don’t exist; tooltips and menus need explicit triggers.
Segment by device type, operating system, and common viewport sizes. If 40% of your users are on 390×844 devices, test the heatmap overlay on that frame before you ship changes.
Team workflows that make heatmaps stick
- Weekly triage: Review top hotspots as a team, create issues, and assign owners.
- Release notes: Attach a heatmap snapshot to each UX ticket to record the “before” state.
- Playbooks: Standardise thresholds, e.g., “If scroll reach to pricing is <40% on desktop, raise the block above the fold.”
- Knowledge base: Save annotated maps with short summaries so new teammates learn faster.
Education and learning analytics example
In a learning platform, an activity heatmap can show interactions by module and student across a term. A matrix view highlights modules where activity is low or where attempts cluster near deadlines. A temporal heatmap by hour reveals when learners are most active—say, weekday evenings—and helps instructors time announcements or support. Pair the map with completion and assessment outcomes to avoid mistaking superficial clicks for genuine progress. If a particular quiz shows heavy activity around one confusing question, revise the wording or provide an example.
Product performance and reliability example
Ops teams use temporal heatmaps to track error rates or latency by endpoint and hour. A sudden hotspot at 02:00 UTC on a single service suggests a batch job contention or a timezone‑based bug. Roll a log‑scaled palette to detect smaller but material increases outside the peak. Tie alerts to thresholds derived from that map to catch regressions early.
From exploration to action: a worked micro‑example
Context: A B2B app sees poor adoption of a new “Bulk invite” feature on the team settings page.
- Observation: The spatial heatmap shows high activity near the “Add user” button and dead clicks on the surrounding area. The “Bulk invite” link is text‑only beneath the fold on common laptop viewports; scroll maps show only 38% of users reach it.
- Hypothesis: Users don’t see the link; those who do don’t recognise it as actionable.
- Change: Move “Bulk invite” into a primary button next to “Add user,” add an icon, and surface it above the fold.
- Result: After shipping, the heatmap shows a new hotspot on the button and a 3.1× increase in bulk invitations. Conversion to “First 10 invites sent” rises from 12% to 29% week over week. Support tickets about “How do I upload a CSV?” drop by half.
The heatmap found the problem. The metrics proved the fix.
How to validate an activity heatmap
Always sanity‑check visual insights.
- Session review: Watch 5–10 sessions that include the hotspot. Confirm the behaviour the map implies.
- Correlate with outcomes: Link the hotspot to success or failure metrics.
- Check sample bias: Ensure the dataset excludes staff, bots, and QA traffic.
- Reproduce with a different cut: If desktop shows a pattern, verify on mobile or by region to confirm it generalises.
Governance and versioning
Document your heatmap configurations just like code.
- Version snapshots when you change palette or bucket sizes.
- Record the selector strategy (data‑test‑id vs CSS) so future engineers can maintain it.
- Store overlay screenshots alongside the UI version to avoid mismatches after redesigns.
Key terms
- Bucket: The discrete cell that aggregates events (pixel tile, time interval, or category pair).
- Colour scale: The mapping from values to colour intensity or hue.
- Rage click: A rapid series of clicks in the same spot, usually signalling frustration.
- Dead click: A click on a non‑interactive area.
- Scroll depth: How far down a page users travel, often expressed as a percentile.
- Dwell time: Time a user spends on a section or element before moving on.
Checklist for shipping an activity heatmap
- Define the decision you’ll take from this map.
- Choose the right map type and granularity.
- Instrument events with stable element identifiers.
- Pick a colour‑blind safe palette and lock the scale for comparisons.
- Segment by device and major viewport sizes.
- Exclude bots, staff, and test data.
- Annotate releases, campaigns, and outages.
- Pair the heatmap with conversion or success metrics.
- Validate with sessions and logs before acting.
Frequently asked questions
Are activity heatmaps accurate enough to replace A/B tests?
No. They’re excellent for discovering patterns and generating hypotheses. Use experiments when you need causal evidence or to quantify lift.
Do cursor movement heatmaps reflect eye tracking?
Sometimes, but not reliably. Treat them as a proxy on desktop only and corroborate with clicks, scrolls, and outcomes.
How much data do I need?
Enough to smooth out randomness. For UI heatmaps, a few hundred sessions per page state is a practical floor. For temporal maps, at least one full weekly cycle helps capture rhythm.
Can I compare heatmaps from different pages?
Yes, if you align scales and break down by device. But comparisons are most meaningful within the same task or funnel.
What about dynamic or personalised pages?
Use element‑based heatmaps keyed to stable data attributes. For highly dynamic content, capture the component state with each event so the overlay reflects what the user actually saw.
A concise definition to close
An activity heatmap is a colour‑coded view of where and when users concentrate their actions. Use it to find patterns quickly, prioritise fixes, and align teams around evidence. Pair it with outcome metrics and experiments to turn visual insights into measurable improvements.
