Common Usability Pitfalls: Lessons from Real-World Products

It often begins the same way: a team creates something remarkable—feature-rich, well-designed, and with a lot of potential. After months or years of development, launch day arrives. Users sign up, and the team anticipates that their hard work is about to pay off.

And then, confusion sets in.

Users don’t know where to click. They get lost in menus. They abandon forms midway. Support tickets begin to pile up. Complaints flood in. Technically, the product works—its backend is solid, features are robust, and the design is sleek. But something feels off. The team struggles to pinpoint exactly what the issue is.

The problem isn’t the product itself. The problem is usability.

Across industries, we’ve witnessed similar challenges: An application struggles because users can’t figure out how to get started. A service loses customers because simple tasks become confusing or time-consuming. A website sees conversions drop because users can’t complete basic actions without encountering roadblocks. From small startups to large corporations, poor usability often drives users away.

A great product is not only about what it can do but also about how easily people can use it.

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Recognising the Patterns

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In our work, we have encountered patterns where even the most feature-rich tools face user experience challenges. Take, for example, a common issue we’ve seen with onboarding: users struggle to get started. Some sign up but never proceed with the next steps. Others get stuck trying to figure out how to navigate key features. Many abandon processes halfway through.

Support teams often become overwhelmed with repetitive questions, such as:

• How do I get started?
• Where can I find my account details?
• How do I track my progress?
• Is there any support or help available?
  

Initially, teams may dismiss these concerns. They might assume that users are unfamiliar with the system or need more time to adjust. But data often tells a different story.

User retention drops. Many users never get past the first few steps, abandoning the system in frustration. Support costs soar as teams spend time answering the same questions repeatedly rather than focusing on product improvement. More importantly, the reputation of the product starts to suffer, as what was intended to be a solution becomes known for its frustrating user experience.

We have also seen cases where complex processes, unclear pricing, or poor communication channels create additional barriers. These are often followed by inquiries that waste users’ time and make the product feel less intuitive.

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Our Approach

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At Assurdly, we focus on a simple principle: good usability is not about quick fixes. It’s about understanding the full user journey. Throughout various client engagements, we’ve observed that even small friction points can lead to big frustrations. Through in-depth research, user testing, and platform audits, we help clients uncover pain points and find opportunities for improvement.

A common theme we see is that onboarding can often become the first major obstacle. New users are left guessing how to get started and may end up lost. We’ve found that introducing a more structured, guided onboarding process often results in improved user engagement and retention.

Navigation is another frequent issue. Many products are feature-rich but fail to surface essential tools and actions in an intuitive way. Key functionalities often get buried in menus, which increases cognitive load and makes workflows harder to follow. We recommend making important actions more accessible to reduce confusion and enhance user experience.

Another common issue is notifications. In many cases, critical messages are buried under less relevant updates, making it difficult for users to notice important information. We advise clients to reconsider the structure of notifications so that urgent alerts stand out without overwhelming users with excessive information.

In tasks like payments or account management, we often suggest streamlining processes by removing unnecessary steps or reducing redundant inputs. We’ve found that simplifying these flows can lead to better user retention and lower drop-off rates.

These recommendations are not arbitrary but are based on observing how users behave across a variety of systems. When clients choose to implement changes based on our suggestions, we see measurable improvements.

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The Impact

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Once our recommended changes are implemented, the results are often noticeable. New users move through the system with greater confidence. Support tickets decrease as fewer users need help with basic tasks. Most importantly, metrics improve:

• Onboarding completion rates increase.
• Churn rates fall.
• User satisfaction rises.

This demonstrates that even small adjustments in usability, when properly addressed, can drastically improve the overall user experience and retention.

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The Lesson

For product teams, the key takeaway is simple: usability isn’t something that can be added at the end of development. It’s not an afterthought or an additional layer to consider after the features are built. Usability is the foundation of everything. Good usability is the difference between a product that users tolerate and one they love. It’s the difference between something functional and something effortless. It’s the difference between something users abandon and something they rely on every day.

In the end, usability is what determines whether a good idea succeeds or fails.