When it comes to vision, it’s nearly impossible to precisely remember everything you’ve looked at, in the order you looked at it. Consequently, we never truly know what people are really paying attention to. And that’s where heatmaps come into play.
What is a heatmap?
In market research, heatmaps show exactly what people look at and for how long. Red colours show longer, more intense scrutiny whereas blue colours show less prolonged scrutiny. Anything without a coloured overlay is considered ignored by people.
Advantages
Heatmaps are a great way to truly understand how people interact with an image, whether a webpage or a product photo without having to worry about leading questions, social desirability, or difficulties in communicating or remembering what someone is looking at.
Application
Heatmaps are perfectly suited to better understand how people perceive webpages, advertisements, and packaging. For instance, you can learn if people don’t notice the ‘special offer’ page on your website. Or, you can learn if people are failing to read about the main advantages of your product as listed on the packaging.
