The FullStory digital experience intelligence (DXI) platform is a powerful tool, enabling UX designers to get specific data needed to redesign a website focused on user needs and usability improvements.

Optimizing e-commerce platforms for a seamless user experience becomes significantly more effective when UX designers have access to a large source of data. Traditional data outlets such as demographics, journey maps, conversion rates and user surveys fall short in providing all of the information designers need to create a data-driven, user-centric website. With limited insights into user behavior, the challenge often lies in converting raw data into actionable design to improve usability.

Align Strategy with User Flow to Uncover Design Flaws

FullStory session replays provide an in-depth visual analysis of user interactions within a website or application. If there is uncertainty about whether users are interacting with specific design elements as intended, FullStory’s Watch Element feature allows you to filter sessions and inspect instances where these elements appeared on the user’s screen, providing insights into their visibility or interaction. This feature is a great indicator of the effectiveness of page elements. The overall user experience can significantly improve with simple updates such as updating the placement of a button, increasing its size, or changing colors to increase contrast. The ultimate goal is to create a smooth user journey, which occasionally involves removing elements that disrupt the natural flow.

Tackle Visual Clutter to Minimize Cognitive Overload

Visually cluttered pages often lead users away from completing their intended tasks. To prevent this, designers can utilize Click Maps, a feature that provides insights on the interaction level across a page, evaluating the relevancy of links and buttons. By understanding the user’s perspective on the necessity of these elements, designers can streamline choices and reduce cognitive load. This feature provides the ability to analyze the importance of icons on a website, for example, that at first glance may seem irrelevant but are extremely important to users. Not only are they necessary but highlighting them enhanced the user journey.  Icons serve as intuitive symbols that quickly convey information, reducing the cognitive load on users. They help in understanding functionalities without relying on text, streamlining the user experience.

Decrease Rage Clicks and Dead Clicks to Eradicate User Frustration

A rage click is classified as a user clicking their mouse multiple times within a short timespan on a single element. Rage clicks are often associated with the lack of functionality of a button or a broken link. FullStory allows you to watch actual sessions where users are experiencing this issue, so you can identify friction points and optimize the design accordingly to satisfy user’s needs.

Dead clicks refer to a user interaction where a click does not result in an expected response. It indicates a non-responsive or malfunctioning element on the interface failing to perform its designated function. While working on an e-commerce website redesign, I watched several user sessions where they experienced frustration that was not caused by a typical broken link or a page with a long loading time, but rather users were rage clicking on a product image thinking it would expand, followed by pinch-to-zoom on the same image to get a closer look at important information.

The Dead Click feature in FullStory allowed me to understand the following:

  • The importance of analyzing user sessions that involved pinch-to-zoom actions on imagery, which helped in understanding behavior patterns to address usability issues;
  • The significance of implementing a “tap to expand” functionality on product pages allowing users to closely view images;
  • The necessity of a gallery containing images highlighting product features and callouts, catering to users who seek to locate this information quickly.

Retain User Engagement Below the Fold Despite Its Challenges

It’s a common misconception that all important content must be placed above the fold. While it’s important to be strategic about what appears immediately after a page loads, it is misguided to think that users won’t scroll to the end of a page. Scroll maps are fundamental in identifying areas of improvement such as false bottoms in between components. When used in conjunction with Click Maps, these tools provide comprehensive insights into user interactions across the entire page, aiding in more effective content strategy. Longer content is not necessarily problematic if it’s relevant and valuable to the user. The right strategy will ensure users stay fully engaged even on a lengthy page.

Simplify User Interactions Across Screens

Adapting interfaces for different size screens, such as tablets and mobile devices, reveals that various page elements may be unnecessary for an effective user experience. Designers often find that certain features or elements that work well on a larger screen are either redundant or disrupt the user experience on smaller screens. Therefore, removing these unnecessary elements can make the user journey on mobile devices or tablets more streamlined and efficient. Users shouldn’t struggle to understand functionality and should be able to intuitively find what they are looking for quickly.

To that end, simplicity is key when translating desktop components to mobile versions. Identifying elements that complicate the learning process is crucial to refine design for a better user experience. FullStory provides a detailed snapshot of user interactions across various devices. By filtering user sessions on specific devices, UX designers can pinpoint areas of potential frustration, allowing them to proactively address. This contributes to a positive overall experience and a high level of satisfaction, as most customers won’t return to a website if it has caused them frustration.

Balance Interactive Elements for a Better User Experience

Creating a memorable and positive user experience often involves incorporating unique interactive elements such as transitions, animations, buttons and icons. However, there is a delicate balance between visually appealing interfaces and intuitive UX. Streamlining the interface to prioritize essential elements to users is crucial. If a design element has no defined purpose, chances are that element is cluttering the webpage and potentially causing cognitive overload.

Assessing the value of each element or interaction is vital to align with the user’s end goal. Usability issues, indicated by increased loading times, are often associated with the excessive use of animations, large image files or interactive elements. FullStory’s Session Analysis allows designers to identify pages with longer load times and high drop off rates. These insights are essential to mitigate the negative impacts on the user and enhance their overall experience.

Decrease Customer Dissatisfaction and Poor Customer Experiences with FullStory Insights

FullStory proves to be an essential tool for UX designers, especially when faced with the challenge of creating user-centric websites with little to no data. It enables UX designers to gather detailed data, validate design hypotheses, and refine designs based on actual user interactions. This not only helps in identifying usability patterns and design flaws but also in optimizing user experiences through data-driven decisions. Additionally, focusing on accessibility, compliance, and responsiveness in the early stages of the design process can guide UX Designers in effectively using typography, animation, navigation structure and interactive elements. FullStory stands as a crucial ally in enhancing user experience and ensuring designs meet user needs and preferences.