Numbers can show you what’s happening—but not why. As a UX researcher, understanding the why behind user behavior is at the core of my work. Analytics can tell me where users drop off or which features they avoid, but they don’t reveal the experience behind those actions. That’s where session replays come in.

Over the years, session replays have become one of my go-to tools for uncovering hidden friction points, understanding user confusion, and validating design decisions. They’ve helped me spot subtle usability issues that raw data alone would never surface.

But like any tool, session replays can become overwhelming if you don’t approach them strategically. It’s easy to get lost in hours of footage without actionable takeaways. In this post, I’ll share how I use session replays efficiently —so you can extract valuable UX insights without drowning in recordings.

Why I love session replays as a UX researcher

Simply put, I love session replays because of their practicality.

Think about it, session replays are available 24/7 even when the designer isn’t in a research phase. It’s like having a window into real user interactions at any time, which helps me stay proactive in improving the UX.

Session replays are also faster to run than usability tests because I don’t have to spend as much time recruiting users or deciding how to collect data. And unlike moderated testing, which has the potential for bias due to the controlled environment, session replays allow UX teams to watch how users behave “in the wild”.

How I use session replays in UX research

Now let’s go over the four most common use cases for session replays for me:

Test the hypotheses I came up with during heuristic analysis

One of the ways I use session replays the most is to dig deeper into my hypotheses from heuristic evaluations.

You see, when you perform heuristic analysis, you have to look forward to the next usability test to validate findings. But with session replays, you can readily investigate these issues right away.

For example, last year when I was conducting a heuristic analysis on dashboards in Userpilot, I identified a button that was problematically placed. Then, I filtered down sessions and looked at only those who went through that experience so I could see the journey users were taking here and if it was a friction point.

From there, I could see the number of users incorrectly clicking and returning to that point in the journey. This confirmed that it was a friction point and then we quickly changed the placement in the product for better usability.

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Identify user obstacles and pain points across the product

Now, you can’t always rely on heuristic evaluations to spot all problems—many UX issues are not that obvious.

That’s why I don’t always start from a hypothesis. Instead, I also use session replays to monitor user behavior across all of our features and spot hidden friction points.

These pain points could range from confusing navigation menus to unclear CTAs. For example, if I perform a heuristic analysis on the onboarding process, my bias won’t allow me to find problems with the UX copy. This is because I already know the product and I don’t know what’s obvious or not for new users.

Instead, you can simply watch sessions where users interact with the onboarding process and identify points of friction on the spot. You’ll be able to see why they skip it, how they behave when trying to follow along, and so on.

Verify user claims and understand feedback context

One great perk of session replays is how it gives you a more vivid perspective on qualitative feedback.

For instance, when users report a bug, session replays make it trivial to find its root cause because you can watch how it happens. It makes the bug-fixing process 1000x more effective.

Now, since Userpilot records sessions, I can also pair it with the qualitative data we collect from the multiple in-app surveys we run. So when we get a piece of feedback, we can go to the exact moment where the user gave us the feedback and watch their experience..

This means that whenever a user points out that they’re frustrated with a feature—for example—I can watch exactly what caused this frustration to better understand the context and find a solution.

Now, with sessions being added in Userpilot, it’s also great to use hand in hand with qualitative research. We have multiple surveys / NPS that prompt users for their feedback. Now, when we get a piece of feedback, we can go to that exact moment that the user gave us the feedback and see the journey they were completing prior to writing it. This means, if a user has pointed out that they’re frustrated with something, for example, I can watch exactly what caused this frustration and better understand the context of the feedback they’re giving us.

Back up design decisions in stakeholder meetings

Session replays also open the door for more efficient collaboration with designers, developers, and other stakeholders.

You see, instead of sharing event data where everyone can have a different interpretation of it. You can show visual evidence of what’s happening in the user experience.

With sessions, stakeholders will be able to understand problems better and realize the value of finding a solution. This will allow you to foster collaboration among designers, developers, and other team members to find and implement solutions quickly.

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My step-by-step process for conducting UX research with session replays

Now, how you conduct UX research will dictate how you’ll use session replays.

For me, here’s how the process looks like from beginning to end:

1. Define your research objectives

Session replays are a tool, not a pre-made process with a goal in mind.

So if you want to extract value from it, you first need to determine what exactly you want to learn in your research. Are you trying to validate a hypothesis? Identify friction points? Investigate a user-reported issue?

A clear objective helps you focus the analysis on impactful data, as well as define success criteria for the team. Goal-setting frameworks such as SMART or OKRs might be useful as templates too.

I recommend keeping this objective short and clear. For example, let’s say a new feature doesn’t have the same adoption rate as the other core features. Then, your objective here could be to analyze the new feature’s adoption process to find room for improvement.

With an objective like this, now you know where to start.

2. Segment user session data for targeted analysis

You just can’t watch random replays and hope to find useful insights. You’ll fail at it.

That’s why I use filters to narrow down relevant sessions based on specific user behaviors, such as:

• Users who abandoned a specific flow.
• Users who clicked a certain button multiple times.
• Sessions where users triggered an error message.

For this reason, I highly recommend using a session recording tool with advanced search and filters (like Userpilot). It will make session replays way easier to use and speed up things for you.

For example, remember our objective was to investigate the adoption process of the new feature? Then you can simply filter the sessions of users who engaged with it in the past month.

3. Combine session replays with other analytics tools for deeper insights

Despite all the praise I’ve given to session replays until now, it’s not like it’s the ultimate source of truth. A lot of what you see are isolated cases.

That said, you still need to cross-reference data, complement your analysis, and make correlations.

To do this, I like to use Userpilot’s analytics reports to add context to session replay data such as:

• Funnel analysis. To define the ideal journey and spot drop-off points.
• Path analysis. For figuring out what series of actions lead to a desired result.
• User profiles. To watch how specific segments of users behave in the product.

So if the sessions of users who engaged with the new feature only show a few hints (e.g., mistakes when interacting with the UI), then you can go deeper. For instance, you could conduct a funnel analysis of the adoption process and figure out which step is having abnormal drop-offs.

If that’s the case, then you can watch the sessions of users who dropped off from the funnel and confirm that, indeed, the new feature UI is preventing their adoption.

4. Prioritize areas for improvement

Not every usability issue has the same level of impact. Some issues are not even worth solving because their impact is too small compared to the resources required to fix them.

For that reason, once I’ve identified pain points, I assess their severity based on:

• The number of users affected.
• The impact on conversion rates or engagement.
• Whether it’s a quick fix or a major redesign effort.

For example, let’s say you figured that some of the feature’s UI leads to mistakes, the copy isn’t clear, and the feature’s overall aesthetic is a bit too charged (going against the heuristic of keeping a minimalist design).

Then, it’s best to prioritize the first two issues instead of the aesthetic problem. And that’s because:

1. There’s no evidence that the aesthetic is causing a problem.
2. Fixing it would require an expensive redesign.

5. Share your findings with product and development teams

UX research doesn’t work in isolation. There’s a lot of teamwork involved with product managers, designers, and developers in the process of improving customer experience.

Here’s when the shareability of session replays comes in handy. Once I’ve gathered insights, I can present the relevant session snippets to these same product managers, designers, and developers to brainstorm ideas and implement solutions.

For example, since the session clearly shows users struggling to follow the on-page copy of the new feature, it’s easier for everyone to agree on editing it. You might even propose adding tooltips so the copy doesn’t take up too much screen space.

6. Implement changes and evaluate their success

Finally, you’ll have to monitor the performance of the updated UX design and gather feedback from users to validate the effectiveness of the changes.

You should track your business KPI and all the relevant metrics you’re trying to push forward, as well as put them all together on a slick dashboard like the ones from Userpilot.

However, keep in mind that you can also continue monitoring session replays. Not just to diagnose more problems, but also to validate that the user experience has changed for the better.

For example, let’s say the adoption rate of the new feature increases, but you still see some users struggling with it (again) because they find the UI confusing. That’s the moment where you need to decide if that problem is worth solving or if there are other issues to prioritize—then restart the process from the first step.

Ready to see Userpilot session replay in action?

As I explained, session replays can be very useful in your UX research toolkit when used well. It helps uncover friction points, validate hypotheses, and back up design decisions with real user behavior.

Plus, with Userpilot’s session replay tool, you can filter, analyze, and share insights to improve your product’s UX without wasting time on irrelevant recordings.

So if you want to see how it works firsthand. I truly recommend booking a free Userpilot demo to integrate session replays with product analytics (it doesn’t require any coding at all).

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