How to analyse session recordings to improve Indian website UX

Session recordings are powerful and also easy to waste time on. You can watch 50 recordings and come away with no actionable insight if you do not have a framework for what to look for. I have analysed recordings for dozens of Indian business websites, and the patterns that actually matter come up again and again.

Here is a process that works.

Start with failed conversions, not random sessions

Do not start watching random session recordings. Start by filtering for sessions where a conversion did not happen despite the user visiting a key page. In Hotjar or Clarity, you can filter sessions by pages visited and duration.

Specifically, look for sessions where the user visited your contact page, pricing page, or product page but did not submit a form or make a purchase. These are your most valuable recordings because the intent was there and something went wrong.

For a services website, filter for sessions lasting more than 60 seconds on the contact page with no form submission. Those visitors were interested. Watch what stopped them.

Common patterns to identify

Rage clicks are a red flag. They appear when a user clicks the same element multiple times quickly, indicating frustration. The element is often a button that appears clickable but is not, a broken form submit, or a slow-loading interactive element.

The U-turn pattern is when a user scrolls down a page and then immediately scrolls back up to re-read something. This usually means a piece of information was confusing or they were looking for something they could not find.

On Indian websites, I frequently see users scrolling past the WhatsApp button or phone number and then exiting. This usually means the contact option was not prominent enough or the user did not notice it.

Watch for exit moments on form pages. If most users exit after starting to fill the form, look at what field they stopped at. Email fields sometimes trip up users on mobile. "Company name" fields put off freelancers or individuals who do not consider themselves to have a company.

Segmenting by device type

Mobile recordings in India look very different from desktop. On mobile, users tend to scroll faster, read less, and look for quick contact options. Desktop sessions tend to show more deliberate reading behaviour.

Separate your analysis by device type. A problem on desktop forms may not exist on mobile and vice versa. Many Indian websites have a perfectly functional desktop experience with a frustrating mobile one.

Check whether users on mobile have to pinch-zoom to read any content. If they do, that content is invisible in practice. This is common on sites that have tables or comparison grids that are not responsive.

How many recordings should you watch?

There is a point of diminishing returns. For most Indian business websites with under 10,000 monthly visitors, watching 30 to 50 filtered recordings is enough to identify the main patterns. You will start seeing the same issues repeat by recording 20.

For high-traffic e-commerce sites, segment more aggressively. Watch recordings only from a specific traffic source, only from a specific product category, or only from users who added to cart but did not purchase.

Turning observations into action

Keep a simple notes document while watching recordings. Note the timestamp, the URL, the device, and what happened. After watching 30 sessions, group the notes by theme.

You will likely end up with three to five themes. Prioritise the ones affecting the most sessions or the highest-value pages. One fix on your contact page is worth more than ten fixes on your blog posts.

Run a test after each fix. Change one thing, give it two weeks, and check whether the behaviour pattern changed in new recordings. This is slow but reliable.

Frequently asked questions