Session Recordings
Video playback of individual user sessions showing mouse movement and interactions.
1 min readLast updated Apr 2026
Quick Reference
CategoryAnalytics & Tracking
Related Terms1
Video playback of individual user sessions showing mouse movement and interactions.
Why It Matters
Session recordings show the 'why' behind your metrics. Watching real users struggle with your checkout, miss your CTA, or rage-click on broken elements provides actionable insight no dashboard can match. It's the closest thing to watching customers in a physical store.
Practical Example
Scenario
A home goods brand investigates why mobile conversion is 50% lower than desktop despite similar traffic quality.
Calculation
Watching 50 mobile session recordings reveals: sticky header covers product images when scrolling (15 sessions), checkout form fields auto-zoom annoyingly (12 sessions), payment button below fold on some devices (8 sessions)Result
Fixing these three issues increases mobile conversion 38%, closing most of the gap with desktop.
Pro Tips
- 1Watch recordings of users who converted AND who abandoned—compare behaviors
- 2Filter recordings by specific events: add to cart then abandon, checkout then abandon
- 3Create a weekly ritual of watching 10-20 recordings—build user empathy
- 4Share impactful recordings with your team to build alignment on UX issues
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Watching random recordings instead of filtered segments (inefficient)
Only watching 2-3 recordings and drawing conclusions (too small a sample)
Not acting on findings—watching without implementing fixes