Design problem
Nobody finds the feature
The capability exists, works well, and almost nobody knows it is there.
How you know you have it
- Usage is concentrated in accounts that were onboarded by a human.
- People ask for a feature that shipped months ago.
- The entry point is an icon with no label, or lives behind a gesture.
- The announcement drove a spike, then usage returned to its old level.
Do these first
- 1Put a visible control next to the task the feature helps with.
- 2Give every gesture a visible equivalent.
- 3Teach at the point of need rather than on first run.
- 4Use the empty state as the teaching surface it already is.
Why it happens
No signifier at the moment of need
A feature discovered through a changelog is discovered once. A feature signposted where the relevant task happens is discovered by everybody who needs it.
Gesture-only or hover-only entry points
Invisible until performed, and invisible entirely on touch or with a keyboard.
Teaching separated from doing
Tours front-load information before it means anything, then are never seen again.
What to read, and why
Discoverability is an affordance and timing problem, not a marketing problem, so these entries cover signifiers and contextual teaching rather than announcements.
Why it behaves this way
6The mechanism underneath the symptom. Read these when the fix needs justifying to somebody else.
Discoverability
A capability that users cannot find does not exist, no matter how well it is built.
PrincipleExpert heuristic
Affordances and Signifiers
An affordance is what an object makes possible. A signifier is the cue that tells you so.
PrincipleExpert heuristic
Paradox of the Active User
Users start acting immediately rather than reading, even when reading would be faster, so design has to teach through doing.
PsychologyEstablished research
Recognition Over Recall
Recognising something on screen is far easier than remembering it, so keep the information visible.
HeuristicExpert heuristic
Banner Blindness
People learn to ignore anything that looks like an advertisement, including your own content when it looks like one.
PsychologyEstablished research
Curse of Knowledge
Once you know how something works you cannot accurately imagine not knowing, which is why teams misjudge their own interfaces.
Cognitive biasEstablished research
The craft decisions
4The visual and structural levers that produce or relieve this problem.
Iconography
Icons speed recognition for concepts users already know and create guesswork for everything else.
UI foundationCraft convention
Emphasis
Making one thing stand out, which only works if most things do not.
UI foundationCraft convention
Visual States
Every interactive element needs a defined appearance for every state it can be in, and most designs specify only two.
UI foundationCraft convention
Motion
Animation should explain a change, and anything that does not explain something is delay.
UI foundationCraft convention
Patterns that address it
4Recognised solutions, with the conditions under which each earns its place.
Empty States
The screen before there is anything to show, which is a teaching opportunity rather than a gap.
PatternCraft convention
Onboarding
Getting someone to their first real outcome, which is a very different goal from explaining the interface.
PatternCraft convention
Command Palette
A searchable list of every action, which serves novices as discovery and experts as an accelerator.
PatternCraft convention
Notifications
Telling users something happened, where the default should be not to interrupt.
PatternCraft convention
Components involved
3States, behaviour and the accessibility contract you will need to specify.
Tooltip
A short description on hover or focus, which must never be the only place information lives.
ComponentCraft convention
Popover
A small panel anchored to a trigger, for interactive content that does not deserve a modal.
ComponentCraft convention
Badge and Tag
A small marker of status, category or count, which must not look like something you can press.
ComponentCraft convention
Language
2Where the words carry more of the fix than the layout does.
Microcopy
The small pieces of text that do most of the work: labels, hints, empty states, errors and confirmations.
UX writingCraft convention
Content Design
Deciding what content a user needs and in what order, which is a design activity rather than a writing one.
UX writingCraft convention
Accessibility requirements
3The requirements this problem raises, mapped to the decisions that produce them.
Accessible Names
What assistive technology announces for a control, which must match what a user would call it.
AccessibilityCraft convention
Content on Hover or Focus
Content that appears on hover or focus must be dismissible, hoverable and persistent.
AccessibilityCraft convention
Keyboard Navigation
Everything must be operable with a keyboard alone, which is the single most load-bearing accessibility requirement.
AccessibilityCraft convention
How to find out
3Methods suited to confirming the cause before you commit to a fix.
Usability Testing
Watching people attempt real tasks, which is the most direct evidence available about whether a design works.
Research methodEstablished research
Product Analytics
Measuring what people do at scale, which tells you where problems are and never why they exist.
Research methodCraft convention
User Interviews
Structured conversations about what people actually did, which is far more reliable than what they say they will do.
Research methodEstablished research
Check your work
2Interactive review passes, with progress saved in your browser.
Onboarding Checklist
Whether a new user reaches real value, and how much you make them do before they get there.
ChecklistCraft convention
UX Audit Checklist
A structured pass across the whole product, organised by the same categories as the audit tool.
ChecklistExpert heuristic
Decisions other teams made
1Worked cases, including the options that were rejected.
Designing an AI Suggestion Feature People Would Use
An accurate suggestion feature went unused until it explained itself and became easy to reject.
Case studyCraft convention
Where this usually shows up
The same material, organised around the surface you are building rather than the symptom you are fixing.