"Heatmaps tell you where people click." [MOSTLY MYTH]

"Heatmaps tell you where people click." [MOSTLY MYTH]

Heatmaps tell you where the cursor stopped moving, which is not the same thing. The myth spread because aggregate dots look like data and screenshots look like proof in a deck.

The boring truth: heatmaps are good for one job only — confirming a hypothesis you already formed. "I think nobody scrolls to the second pricing tier" → scroll map confirms or kills it in ten seconds. Session recordings are for the opposite job: you don't have a hypothesis yet and you need to watch ten humans rage-click your broken accordion.

Use the heatmap to size a problem. Use the recording to find one. People reach for heatmaps first because they're faster to skim, then form fake conclusions from cursor noise.

The nuance: neither tells you why. That's a five-user interview, not a dashboard.