Heat Map Plots (Results Dashboards)

Suite
Strategy & Research
Product
Qualtrics
What's on this page

About Heat Map Plots

Heat map plots are widgets that show data collected from heat map questions. A spectrum of colors appears across the original image to show where respondents made their selections. The redder the area, the more respondents chose that coordinate.

red and green blurry blobs spread out over a picture of bicycles, showing where respondents clicked the picture the most or least
red and green blurry blobs spread out over a picture of bicycles, showing where respondents clicked the picture the most or least
Attention: Heat map plots are only supported by Results Dashboards. Heat map plots do not appear in CX Dashboards or EX Dashboards.

Up to 10,000 responses can be displayed in a heat map plot. Any responses above this limit will not be displayed.

Warning: Do not change the image in your heatmap question after you’ve already collected data, or your data will be invalidated, and you won’t be able to use it with the heat map plot.

Heat Map Plots in Results Dashboards

If you collected heat map data, a heat map plot will be included in your Results Dashboard by default.

In the new widget menu, these widgets are under Other and called Heat Map Plot.

new widget menu expands from add widget button
new widget menu expands from add widget button

Basic Setup

The most important field that needs to be filled out before this widget can display data is the source. Here, you can select any individual heat map question in your survey.

editing a heat map plot in dashboard, editing pane opens to left, source field is highlighted
editing a heat map plot in dashboard, editing pane opens to left, source field is highlighted
Qtip: You can only add heat map questions to the source of a heat map plot. You cannot use hot spots or any other kind of question.

Otherwise, it’s optional whether you add a title, description, or response count to your widget.

Display Options

The heat map plot has a few additional options in the Display tab. These are especially useful if you want to adjust the color overlay or address heatmap regions.

in editing pane of a widget, in data tab by default. image shows switching to display tab, so editing options change
in editing pane of a widget, in data tab by default. image shows switching to display tab, so editing options change
  • Radius: Decide on the pixel radius of the colorful areas where respondents clicked. This increases or decreases the overall size of the color area.
    showing radius changes, making blobs bigger and redder
    showing radius changes, making blobs bigger and redder
  • Blur: Decide how much to blur the transition from one color to another. This setting can increase contrast, thus showing more minute preference in large areas of the image that were clicked a lot.
    showing blobs getting blurrier
    showing blobs getting blurrier
  • Block Mode: Add a grid over the heat map plot, reducing clicks to individual colored squares with no gradient. While in this mode, the radius setting changes the size of the grid, and the blur setting has no effect.
    an image is overlaid with a grid with squares colored entirely red or green to indicate respondent clicks
    an image is overlaid with a grid with squares colored entirely red or green to indicate respondent clicks
  • Show Regions: If you have assigned regions to your Heat Map question, this option displays the regions over the heat map.
    screenshot of a user interface has regions highlighted to tell different parts apart, like buttons, comments section, and so on
    screenshot of a user interface has regions highlighted to tell different parts apart, like buttons, comments section, and so on
  • Show Region Labels: You must turn on Show Regions This setting displays the name on each region.
    the user interface with regions is shown again, but this time with the different components labeled
    the user interface with regions is shown again, but this time with the different components labeled
    Qtip: You can also report on region-by-region data using standard widgets. However, the heat map plot is the best visual representation of where respondents clicked the image.

For more information on the Widget Styles settings, see Editing Widgets.

Heat Map Plots in Legacy Results

This section covers how heat map plots work in the legacy Results. We highly recommend using Results Dashboards instead; see Migrating to Results Dashboards for support.

Customization Options

There are five unique customization options for Heat Map visualizations:

radius and blur sliders on the visualization editing pane
radius and blur sliders on the visualization editing pane
  • Radius: Determine the number of pixels a selected coordinate should color and affect.
  • Blur: Determine the number of pixels used to transition from one color to another.
  • Block Mode: Force data into a grid (note that while in this mode, Radius changes the size of the grid and Blur has no effect).
    ice cream heat map with a grid, where some cells are colored red to indicated highly selected areas
    ice cream heat map with a grid, where some cells are colored red to indicated highly selected areas
  • Show Regions: If you have assigned regions to your Heat Map question, display the regions over the heat map.
    heat map plot with translucent shapes indicating where different labelled regions of the image are
    heat map plot with translucent shapes indicating where different labelled regions of the image are
  • Show Region Labels: You must turn on Show Regions first. This gives you the option of showing the name of each region over it.
    a heat map with regions where the regions are labelled
    a heat map with regions where the regions are labelled

Region Visualizations

The following are the visualization types available if you have added regions to your Heat Map questions:

When it comes to visualizing the data, the unique regions of a heat map question act the same as any other multiple choice option.

FAQs

The heat map plot on the dashboard says, “Please enable editing and configure widget,” but I selected a heatmap question as the source. How can I get this widget to display data?

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