Blog Post

Catch frustration before it costs you: New tools for a better user experience

Published
December 3, 2024
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Imagine you're on a website trying to purchase a product, but every time you click the "Add to Cart" button, nothing happens. Frustrating, isn’t it? Such moments can deter consumers from completing their online purchases. And while users find this annoying, it poses an even bigger challenge for businesses.

No matter how beautifully designed your website is, if key elements don’t function when needed, the experience falls apart. That's why monitoring and fixing issues like rage clicks, dead clicks, thrashed cursors, and error clicks is crucial to delivering a seamless user experience and protecting your bottom line from lost sales.

These frustrating issues can lead to several negative outcomes, such as increased operational costs due to a higher volume of support inquiries. Not only does this strain customer service resources, but it can also damage your brand reputation, resulting in lost revenue, higher bounce rates, and missed opportunities. Additionally, losing customer trust and lower user satisfaction and engagement can seriously hurt your business's performance.

Introducing frustration metrics: Gain insights to improve digital experiences  

Catchpoint Real User Monitoring (RUM) now includes frustration metrics to help identify and resolve issues impacting user experience. This new capability tracks key metrics like error clicks, rage clicks, dead clicks, and thrashed cursor movements to identify factors causing user frustration. These powerful monitoring features help businesses detect and address performance problems across their digital platforms, ensuring a smoother and more reliable user experience.

  1. Error Clicks: These occur when users click on a button or any element that fails to function properly, often leading to system errors. When an element triggers a client-side JavaScript error, these clicks are categorized as "error clicks." They may generate an error message or log a failed action. To analyze error clicks efficiently, you can examine them by device type, element text, or browser type.
  1. Rage Clicks: Rage clicks happen when a user repeatedly clicks an element—typically three times within a second—indicating frustration. These often result from unclear indications of element interactivity, generally due to poor UX or user misunderstanding.  
  1. Dead Clicks: This occurs when users click an element, and it has no effect. Dead clicks usually stem from poor UX. Common causes include:

                   • An image that appears to be zoomable but isn’t.

                   • A text string that seems to be a hyperlink but isn’t.

                   • A button that isn't linked to an action.

  1. Thrashed Cursor: This occurs when a user is moving their cursor back and forth erratically indicating frustration or confusion. Common causes of a thrashed cursor include:

                    • Slow site performance

                    • Confusing page layout

                    • A spinning pinwheel  

By monitoring these frustration metrics, Catchpoint helps businesses proactively address user experience issues, reducing bounce rates and preventing customer loss.

Analyzing frustration metrics in the Catchpoint portal

In the Catchpoint portal, you can analyze frustration metrics on the following pages: Explorer, RUM Smartboard, Alerts, and Custom Dashboards. These tools offer comprehensive insights to help identify and resolve issues effectively.

Explorer

A screenshot of a calendarDescription automatically generated

Explorer offers multiple ways to visualize frustration metrics, making it easier to interpret complex data at a glance. Visualizations include line charts, CDFs, tables, heatmaps, and bar charts, each giving a unique perspective on where and how often issues occur. Including frustration metrics in App Metrics enables you to monitor and understand pain points that may otherwise go unnoticed.

RUM smartboard

A screenshot of a computerDescription automatically generated

The RUM Smartboard empowers you to analyze and debug issues using the error message section. This feature provides detailed error information when users interact with specific elements, helping you to identify problematic user actions and pinpoint areas that need improvement.

The trending performance chart offers a high-level view of how errors and metrics evolve over time. By tracking trends, you can determine if issues are recurring, intensifying, or being resolved. It also helps identify patterns, such as increased errors during high-traffic periods or issues tied to specific application versions.

Alerts

A screenshot of a computerDescription automatically generated

You can configure both warning and critical alerts to monitor frustration metrics closely.

• Warning alerts: Set for lower-level issues, indicating early signs of user dissatisfaction. They help teams investigate issues before they escalate.

• Critical alerts: Triggered when frustration metrics reach a high threshold, indicating that user experience is likely being severely impacted. Critical alerts signal the need for immediate action to prevent user churn and ensure app stability.

Custom dashboard

A screenshot of a computerDescription automatically generated

The custom dashboard uses visual cues to help interpret frustration metrics quickly. Color-coded tiles or data points make it easy to identify issues, while various visualizations provide a clear view of user frustration, allowing the team to monitor performance in real time and address pain points effectively.

Turning frustration into opportunity

Actively monitoring frustration metrics enables businesses to deliver smooth and responsive digital experiences. Companies can significantly enhance customer satisfaction, boost conversions, and protect their brand reputation by identifying and resolving rage clicks, dead clicks, thrashed cursor, and error clicks before they become a bigger problem.  

This proactive approach means fewer small issues grow into larger problems, helping to create a consistent, predictable user experience that encourages loyalty. By reducing the friction users feel, businesses can also ease the burden on their support teams, as fewer customers will require assistance.

Ultimately, understanding and acting on frustration metrics isn't just about preventing loss—it's about creating opportunities for better engagement, stronger relationships, and a more reliable, user-friendly experience that keeps customers coming back.

Ready to reduce user frustration? Request a demo or schedule a chat with our solution engineers.

Imagine you're on a website trying to purchase a product, but every time you click the "Add to Cart" button, nothing happens. Frustrating, isn’t it? Such moments can deter consumers from completing their online purchases. And while users find this annoying, it poses an even bigger challenge for businesses.

No matter how beautifully designed your website is, if key elements don’t function when needed, the experience falls apart. That's why monitoring and fixing issues like rage clicks, dead clicks, thrashed cursors, and error clicks is crucial to delivering a seamless user experience and protecting your bottom line from lost sales.

These frustrating issues can lead to several negative outcomes, such as increased operational costs due to a higher volume of support inquiries. Not only does this strain customer service resources, but it can also damage your brand reputation, resulting in lost revenue, higher bounce rates, and missed opportunities. Additionally, losing customer trust and lower user satisfaction and engagement can seriously hurt your business's performance.

Introducing frustration metrics: Gain insights to improve digital experiences  

Catchpoint Real User Monitoring (RUM) now includes frustration metrics to help identify and resolve issues impacting user experience. This new capability tracks key metrics like error clicks, rage clicks, dead clicks, and thrashed cursor movements to identify factors causing user frustration. These powerful monitoring features help businesses detect and address performance problems across their digital platforms, ensuring a smoother and more reliable user experience.

  1. Error Clicks: These occur when users click on a button or any element that fails to function properly, often leading to system errors. When an element triggers a client-side JavaScript error, these clicks are categorized as "error clicks." They may generate an error message or log a failed action. To analyze error clicks efficiently, you can examine them by device type, element text, or browser type.
  1. Rage Clicks: Rage clicks happen when a user repeatedly clicks an element—typically three times within a second—indicating frustration. These often result from unclear indications of element interactivity, generally due to poor UX or user misunderstanding.  
  1. Dead Clicks: This occurs when users click an element, and it has no effect. Dead clicks usually stem from poor UX. Common causes include:

                   • An image that appears to be zoomable but isn’t.

                   • A text string that seems to be a hyperlink but isn’t.

                   • A button that isn't linked to an action.

  1. Thrashed Cursor: This occurs when a user is moving their cursor back and forth erratically indicating frustration or confusion. Common causes of a thrashed cursor include:

                    • Slow site performance

                    • Confusing page layout

                    • A spinning pinwheel  

By monitoring these frustration metrics, Catchpoint helps businesses proactively address user experience issues, reducing bounce rates and preventing customer loss.

Analyzing frustration metrics in the Catchpoint portal

In the Catchpoint portal, you can analyze frustration metrics on the following pages: Explorer, RUM Smartboard, Alerts, and Custom Dashboards. These tools offer comprehensive insights to help identify and resolve issues effectively.

Explorer

A screenshot of a calendarDescription automatically generated

Explorer offers multiple ways to visualize frustration metrics, making it easier to interpret complex data at a glance. Visualizations include line charts, CDFs, tables, heatmaps, and bar charts, each giving a unique perspective on where and how often issues occur. Including frustration metrics in App Metrics enables you to monitor and understand pain points that may otherwise go unnoticed.

RUM smartboard

A screenshot of a computerDescription automatically generated

The RUM Smartboard empowers you to analyze and debug issues using the error message section. This feature provides detailed error information when users interact with specific elements, helping you to identify problematic user actions and pinpoint areas that need improvement.

The trending performance chart offers a high-level view of how errors and metrics evolve over time. By tracking trends, you can determine if issues are recurring, intensifying, or being resolved. It also helps identify patterns, such as increased errors during high-traffic periods or issues tied to specific application versions.

Alerts

A screenshot of a computerDescription automatically generated

You can configure both warning and critical alerts to monitor frustration metrics closely.

• Warning alerts: Set for lower-level issues, indicating early signs of user dissatisfaction. They help teams investigate issues before they escalate.

• Critical alerts: Triggered when frustration metrics reach a high threshold, indicating that user experience is likely being severely impacted. Critical alerts signal the need for immediate action to prevent user churn and ensure app stability.

Custom dashboard

A screenshot of a computerDescription automatically generated

The custom dashboard uses visual cues to help interpret frustration metrics quickly. Color-coded tiles or data points make it easy to identify issues, while various visualizations provide a clear view of user frustration, allowing the team to monitor performance in real time and address pain points effectively.

Turning frustration into opportunity

Actively monitoring frustration metrics enables businesses to deliver smooth and responsive digital experiences. Companies can significantly enhance customer satisfaction, boost conversions, and protect their brand reputation by identifying and resolving rage clicks, dead clicks, thrashed cursor, and error clicks before they become a bigger problem.  

This proactive approach means fewer small issues grow into larger problems, helping to create a consistent, predictable user experience that encourages loyalty. By reducing the friction users feel, businesses can also ease the burden on their support teams, as fewer customers will require assistance.

Ultimately, understanding and acting on frustration metrics isn't just about preventing loss—it's about creating opportunities for better engagement, stronger relationships, and a more reliable, user-friendly experience that keeps customers coming back.

Ready to reduce user frustration? Request a demo or schedule a chat with our solution engineers.

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