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Heatmaps

Heatmaps visualize how users interact with your product's UI — where they tap, where they scroll, where they hesitate, and where they encounter friction. They turn aggregate behavioral data into an intuitive visual layer on top of your screens.

Types of Heatmaps​

Tap Heatmaps​

Show where users are tapping on each screen. High-density areas appear as warm zones; low-density areas appear cool.

Use tap heatmaps to identify:

  • Dead zones — Areas where users tap but nothing happens (missing touch targets, unresponsive elements)
  • Rage taps — Rapid, repeated taps in the same area indicating frustration
  • Missed CTAs — Important buttons that users rarely tap, suggesting visibility or placement issues
  • Unexpected patterns — Users tapping on non-interactive elements they expect to be tappable

Scroll Heatmaps​

Show how far users scroll on each screen and where attention drops off.

Use scroll heatmaps to identify:

  • Fold line — Where the majority of users stop scrolling
  • Content visibility — Whether key content or CTAs are below the fold for most devices
  • Engagement drop-off — Points in the scroll where users lose interest

Viewing Heatmaps​

  1. Navigate to Heatmaps in the left sidebar
  2. Select a screen from your app
  3. Choose the heatmap type (tap or scroll)
  4. Apply filters to narrow the data:
    • Device type — See how heatmaps differ between phone models and screen sizes
    • OS version — Compare behavior across OS versions
    • Time range — Analyze a specific period
    • User segment — Filter by custom attributes

Device-Specific Views​

Because screen layouts can differ significantly across devices, Pulse generates separate heatmaps for different screen size categories. This prevents misleading overlays where a button is in different positions on different devices.

Connecting Heatmaps to Revenue​

Heatmaps are most powerful when combined with interaction data:

  • If a CTA has low tap density and the associated interaction has a high drop-off rate, the CTA placement is likely the issue
  • If rage taps correlate with a specific device or OS version, there may be a rendering or touch target issue unique to that cohort

Next Steps​