OSS user heat-mapping

Over the many OSS implementation projects I’ve worked on, UI/UX (user interface / user experience) has been an afterthought (if even thought about at all). I know there are OSS UI/UX experts out there (I’ve met a handful), but none have ever been assigned to the projects I’ve worked on unfortunately. UI has always just been the domain of the developer. If the functionality worked (even if in a highly convoluted way), then the developer would move on to the next epic. The UI was almost never re-visited unless the functionality proved to be almost unusable.

So the question becomes, how do we observe, measure and trial UI/UX effectiveness?

Have you ever tried running a heat-mapping analysis over your OSS to show actual user behaviour?

Given that almost all OSS are now browser-based, there are plenty of heat-map tools available. They give results that might look something like this (but can also provide more granularity of analysis too):
Heat-map
Image source: https://www.tatvic.com/data-analytics-solutions/heat-map-integration/

Whereas these tools are generally used by web developers to improve retention and conversion rates on their pages (ie customers buying, clicking through on a banner ad, calls to action, etc), we’ll use them in a different way within our OSS. We’ll instead be looking for efficiency of movement, an indicator of whether the design of our page is intuitive or not. Are the operators of your OSS clicking in the right places (menus, titles, buttons, links, etc) to achieve certain outcomes?

I’d be particularly interested in comparing heat-maps of new operators (eg if you’ve installed a sand-pit environment at a client site for the first time and let the client’s operators loose) versus experienced teams. Depending on the OSS application you’re analysing, you may even been interested in observing different behaviours across different devices (eg desktops, phones, tablets).

There’s generally a LOT of functionality available within each OSS. Are we optimising the experience for the functionality that matters most? For web-page designers, that might mean ensuring all the most important information is “above-the-fold” (ie can be seen on the page without having to scroll down – noting that the “fold” will be different across different devices/resolutions). If they want a user to click on the “buy now” button, then they *may* want that to appear above the fold, ensuring the prospective buyer doesn’t have to go searching for it.

In the case of an OSS, you don’t want to hide the most important functionality under layers of menus. And don’t forget that different personas (eg designers, admins, execs, help-desk, NOC, etc) are likely to have different definitions of “important functionality.” You may want to optimise important UI elements for each different persona (if your OSS allows for that level of configurability).

I’m not endorsing Smartlook, but if you’d like to read more about heat-mapping techniques, you can start here.

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