At some point, you have considered redesigning your website. That’s a great thing to do. But the most effective tool on your side is data. You need to know what your users are doing, where they are going, how long they are there, where they are coming from, and many more. This is a part of user research and the user experience. I will go over two different tools to help you conduct some valuable but straightforward user research on your users.
Why Do I Need to Do Research?
Whenever you are looking to make some changes that impact you, make sure you always collect data to validate your reasoning. Data gives you an objective look into what’s going on and helps remove or minimize the “I think” from the decision process. Make decisions on feelings can impact you and sometimes not in a good way. Gathering data to validate changes you are looking to make will help you make better-informed decisions. Here are some helpful tools to get you started!
HotJar: Website Heatmaps & Behavior Analytics Tools
HotJar is a tool that will help you see your visitor’s behavior and collect feedback on what they are doing visually. I had the great opportunity to review this tool before, and I still use it today. One of the best features of this tool is the Heatmap tool. Visually, you can see where users are clicking and how often they click. See a screenshot below:
This is a screenshot of visitors on our Homepage. Anytime someone has visited our website and clicked anywhere, HotJar has tracked the click. This is an excellent feature to use when you are deciding to redesign your website. With this tool, you can see where visitors are going and what they are doing without guessing.
They have several plans to accommodate your needs. You can start with their free plan and move up to a paid plan starting at $29/month.
Google Analytics: The Original Gangsta of User Data
Google Analytics is the industry standard when it comes to analytics for websites. This fantastic FREE (I love free) tool will always reign as the industry standard. Google is the G.O.A.T. of data. They are continuously collecting data to help businesses make informed decisions. Google Analytics is no different. Below is a snippet of my analytics from Jan until May of this year:
Forms and Feedback: The Old Fashion Way to Collect Feedback
One thing holds true, good ole fashion feedback is always a great way to understand how people are using your end product. In the case of redesigning your website, the best thing to do is reach out to current clients and previous clients. See how their experience was or is with using your website. This can be done in many ways. There is numerous form software available out there to build a form to send to your audience and collect their feedback. Need help generating questions? HotJar has a great article about usability testing questions that will help get you started.
With anything you do, there are numerous ways to skin a cat. The above are some of my most trusted ways to gather end-user feedback on what people are doing when visiting your website. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I’ll be glad to help.
All the best!
