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Learning to love rage clicks
It’s a phrase that sparks a familiar feeling.
You might be just about to confirm the trip you’ve been longing to book for months, and clicking ‘Review Order’ just doesn’t do anything.
Anger, frustration and anxiety all rise in equal measure as you bear more and more down on your mouse (or fingertip), savagely clicking a button like it owes you money.
This image we hold, of a red-faced person screaming impotently to the sky, is not something we should be avoiding. In fact, when you’re on the other side of the screen, some rage-clicking is so valuable you should be paying them.
After today you’ll learn to start loving rage clicks, and you’ll know the real problem with digital experience and how to start looking for it!
What is rage clicking?
Before we start – when we say rage clicks let’s use the same definitions
Rage clicking is clicking an element (toggle, button, player, link, etc) several times in a very short span of time. We all have done this – in fact, you can practice your rage clicking on this link here.
Drumline Digital mainly use Contentsquare as a platform for measuring and finding rage-click events.
FACT CHECKER: Rage Clicks are a big sign of friction in digital experiences.
RESULT: Rage clicks are free error checking.
The common wisdom is that users who are rage-clicking are hitting a brick wall, and are therefore at a much higher risk of abandoning their journey. While this often does happen, it’s not what the data tells us!
For our clients using Contentsquare, we looked at the average purchase rate for users who rage clicked, compared to those who didn’t. Rage clickers converted 20% less! Though the size of this effect was small, as less than 0.1% of sessions had rage clicks…
If we are about performance, ‘fixing’ rage-click experiences isn’t going to be the thing that moves the needle. Think of rage clicks like having a free user test! You’ve identified something useful to check and make sure isn’t going to break further – add it to the backlog and move on with your day.
So, if rage clicks aren’t a big problem, what is?
Think of your digital experience as one that mixes friction (imposed and accidental), with fuel.
Friction means adding complexity, ‘gates’ like logins or long forms, or confusing user flows – these elements all tend to wear users down and make it more likely that a user will drop out or lose their way.
Fuel on the other hand means incentives, promotions, engaging designs, and elements that draw users in to want to do more.
Here’s the thing about rage clickers that are different from most of your digital traffic – they care. They care enough about their experience on your site to really want something so much that they’re frustrated they can’t have it!
The bigger problem is the vast amount of traffic that does have enough fuel to care. Removing friction is going to make your already engaged users get through their tasks, though it’s not likely to make an apathetic user suddenly engaged.
Here are some stats that may shock you – all from our clients on Contentsquare:
- The average all-traffic bounce rate is > 50%
- 68% of sessions never scroll past 25% on a page
- 38% of sessions last less than 4 seconds
These numbers aren’t very different from what industry benchmarks are for similar brands – and the story they tell is one of massive apathy.
What should I do about it?
Rage clicks are gold – for error handling. Get on them and fix them quick. You’ll make a small number of users very happy!
Invest your time in experimenting with ways to add fuel to your experience – and increase the 30%+ of users that would otherwise look away to spend a few more seconds reading, exploring and buying.
Remember that apathy doesn’t leave breadcrumbs – you need to go looking for it!
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