In the present day where digital products must evolve rapidly to meet user expectations, tracking user behaviour has become fundamental to successful product development.
Adeyemi Gideon, a distinguished UX and product-building expert, asserts that understanding user behaviour through analytics provides the foundation for creating adaptable, user-centred designs.
Gideon highlights that tools like Hotjar, Amplitude, and Firebase Analytics enable teams to translate raw data into insights, guiding continuous updates, feature releases, and product improvements.
“Tracking user behaviour allows us to see exactly where users are engaging or struggling,” Gideon explained. “This data gives us a direct line to what works well and what could use enhancement, enabling us to improve the user experience based on their actual interactions.”
Gideon points to specific tools that provide insights into user journeys and pain points, each contributing uniquely to the product evolution process.
Hotjar, with its heatmaps and session recordings, helps design teams visualize user engagement across a page, highlighting areas where users click, scroll, or abandon a session.
“With Hotjar, we can see high-engagement areas and address friction points by refining the design and layout,” he said.
Amplitude and Firebase allow teams to track more detailed user actions across an app or website.
Amplitude, for instance, enables the monitoring of specific events, helping product teams understand feature engagement rates and identify drop-off points.
Firebase Analytics, particularly popular in mobile application development, offers real-time data on user interactions, allowing immediate responses to emerging trends.
“The power of real-time analytics with Firebase and event tracking with Amplitude is that they reveal where users engage most, helping us build a more intuitive journey,” Gideon observed.
While the tools provide the foundation, Gideon emphasizes the importance of knowing exactly what to track and setting strategic goals aligned with business objectives. For instance, if increasing user retention is a priority, tracking engagement with key features, return visits, or time spent on essential pages becomes crucial.
“Every data point we track should serve a clear purpose, directly tying back to our business goals and creating a roadmap for improvement,” Gideon shared.
By connecting specific user actions to product metrics—such as conversion rates, retention, or engagement—teams can create a cohesive view of how users interact with the product. “Tracking clicks and scrolls is only the beginning. We’re crafting a story that explains what drives user satisfaction and what contributes to our goals,” he explained. This alignment helps product teams understand user behaviour within a strategic framework, providing actionable insights that guide product evolution.
For Gideon, the ultimate value of user behaviour insights is the continuous improvement cycle they enable, fostering a responsive, iterative approach to product updates. When analytics reveal areas of user friction, product teams can experiment with alternative flows, measure the impact of changes, and iterate accordingly.
This ongoing feedback loop has become essential for digital products that aim to meet user expectations in a fast-paced market.
“A product should always be evolving,” Gideon remarked. “Through user tracking, we’re always refining, testing, and enhancing. It’s what keeps products relevant and aligned with user expectations.”
Adeyemi Gideon has emerged as a leading influence in Africa’s UX and global product-building space, renowned for his commitment to data-driven design and user-centric product strategies across products like Pennee, COVr and a lot more. His work has helped establish new standards in digital product development across Africa and the US, inspiring product teams to integrate analytics as a fundamental component of creating impactful, user-focused experiences.
