Overlay-based heatmaps for dynamic graphical user interfaces

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• obtaining event data associated with interaction events originated from users utilizing a graphical user interface (GUI) of an application, each event datum being associated with a GUI element of a webpage of the application, wherein the webpage is dynamic and includes different collections or arrangements of GUI elements for different ones of the users;
• pre-processing the event data, the pre-processing comprising reducing a cardinality of the event data by modifying a subset of the event data for different ones of users to be of a same type, the subset of the event data being associated with a common GUI element presented differently to the different ones of the users;
• generating, based on the pre-processed event data, heatmap data for the webpage;
• and
• transmitting at least some of the heatmap data to a computing device, causing the computing device to display heatmap visualization elements overlaid on top of a rendered version of the webpage.

A system comprising:

• a first one or more computing devices to implement a data store in a multi-tenant provider network;
• and
• a second one or more computing devices to implement components of a heatmap service in the multi-tenant provider network, the components including instructions that upon execution cause the components to:
• obtain event data associated with interaction events originated from users utilizing a graphical user interface (GUI) of an application, each event datum being associated with a GUI element of a webpage of the application, wherein the webpage is dynamic and includes different collections or arrangements of GUI elements for different ones of the users;
• pre-process the event data, the pre-processing comprising reducing a cardinality of the event data by modifying a subset of the event data for different ones of users to be of a same type, the subset of the event data being associated with a common GUI element presented differently to the different ones of the users;
• generate, based on the pre-processed event data, heatmap data for the webpage;
• store the heatmap data in the data store;
• and
• transmit at least some of the heatmap data to a computing device, causing the computing device to display heatmap visualization elements overlaid on top of a rendered version of the webpage.