Understanding user behavior is a cornerstone of User Experience (UX) optimization. In user research, Mousetracking is categorized within the spectrum of quantitative methodologies. This technique involves recording and analyzing the real-world interactions of website visitors on an aggregated level.The data collected includes not only the pages visited but also all clicks, mouse and scroll movements, gestures, and keyboard inputs. By analyzing these extensive datasets—utilizing various techniques such as Heatmaps, Funnel, and Form Analytics—significant problems and valuable optimization potential within digital offerings, especially online shops, can be identified.
Microsoft Clarity is a freely accessible mousetracking tool that provides detailed visualization of user behavior. Integration is straightforward, often done via the Google Tag Manager (GTM).For optimal use and to refine analyses, integration with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is possible. This highlights the necessity of a Google account to fully leverage the synergies between the platforms. Clarity offers a brief introduction to its main tools on YouTube, as well as extensive documentation for reference.
Microsoft Clarity Documentation
Clarity primarily relies on three main functional areas: the Dashboard for overview, Heatmaps for visual analysis, and Session Recordings for detailed examination of individual sessions.
The Dashboard provides an immediate overview of the basic collected data, including User Information, Click Behavior, and Smart Events. Users also have the option to switch to the linked GA4 dashboard view, allowing for extended data analysis.
Heatmaps are essential for making visible which areas of a page generate the most interactions and how far visitors scroll. Clarity offers various differentiated maps:• Click Maps: Examine elements actively clicked by the user, distinguishing between specific click types like "Dead Clicks" (clicks that lead to no action) and "Rage Clicks" (multiple rapid clicks on an element, often a sign of frustration).• Scroll Maps: Visualize the scroll depth of users to verify if the most important page elements remain in the visible area.• Attention Maps: Show where users spend the most time on the page, providing insights into attention hotspots.• Area Maps: Display the proportion of clicks within individual, customizable areas.Benefits of Heatmap Usage:For better evaluation, for instance in A/B tests, up to two heatmaps can be compared side-by-side. Furthermore, filters can be applied and saved in Segments for later reuse.
Session Recordings allow playing back videos that show a user's entire shop or page visit, the Customer Journey, in detail.Key Features of Recordings:• AI Summary: Recordings can be summarized using artificial intelligence to quickly grasp the most important events.• Efficient Playback: Inactive periods during the session can be skipped.• Filtering and Segmentation: By using filters and segments, sessions related to specific events or user groups can be observed intentionally.• Detailed Analysis: Heatmaps can be generated for individual recordings.• Organization: Sessions can be favorited or labeled for grouping and quick retrieval.
Guide to Session Recordings in Clarity
To precisely answer specific questions, Clarity offers comprehensive filtering and customization options:
Clarity provides 30 standard filters, grouped by category (e.g., User Info, Traffic), which can be applied both inclusively and exclusively. Various filters can be combined and saved as Segments to optimize data selection in the Dashboard, Heatmaps, or Recordings.
Custom Tags are customizable filters that go beyond the standard scope, enabling analysis with a specific, individual focus (e.g., specific checkout steps or A/B testing variations).• Setup: Custom Tags must be implemented into the website code via JavaScript.• Format: They consist of a Key (Tag Name) and a Value (Tag Value). Both must not exceed 255 characters combined, with a maximum of 128 tags allowed per page.• Application: After implementation in the code, the filter can be activated in the "Custom Tags" section.
Especially for generating Heatmaps, the Path Filter can be used to specifically limit the URLs under consideration. Various operators are available for this purpose, such as "Is exactly," "Starts with," "Contains," and Regex (Regular Expressions) for advanced matching.
Microsoft Clarity is a powerful and free tool for bridging the gap between general metrics and the specific user experience. It provides important answers to central UX questions. The combination of dashboard metrics, visual heatmaps, and detailed session recordings enables the data-driven identification of friction points, thus forming the basis for informed UX optimizations.