There’s a familiar assumption in software design: “users will explore.”
That if we build it well enough — clean UI, a few tooltips, maybe a help link or two — people will figure it out.
But in practice, they don’t. Not always. Not even often.
When users feel unsure, under-supported, or overwhelmed, they don’t start clicking around. They stop. Or worse — they go elsewhere.
So in this article, I want to explore a key question from my research:
What usability and content design barriers limit client adoption of digital tools, particularly in business environments?
The Real World Is Not a Lab
In an ideal research setup, we’d observe real users engaging naturally with a product. We’d ask follow-up questions, run usability tests, and learn directly from their struggles and moments of delight.
But real-world projects come with constraints — especially in B2B environments where clients are busy, feedback loops are long, and access to users is often gated. For my research, I didn’t have direct access to end-users. Instead, I gathered insights through:
Proxy interviews with account managers and product specialists
Observations of recorded client calls
Analysis of support tickets and documentation requests
This method isn’t uncommon. As Galitz (2007) explains, indirect research — where feedback is filtered through intermediaries — is often necessary when access to users is limited. It’s not perfect, but it’s still rich with insight.
What I Found: A Landscape of Friction
Across sources, several recurring themes emerged — friction points that consistently held users back:
1. Unclear Navigation
People didn’t know where to start. Even when the interface looked tidy, users struggled to understand what belonged where — or what to click on first. This isn’t about aesthetics; it’s about information architecture.
2. Lack of Orientation
Users had no clear “mental map” of the product. They didn’t understand how features related to each other, or how to trace a path from question to answer. The result? Confusion, high mental load, and a tendency to fall back on human support.
3. Heavy Content, Light Guidance
Help content existed, but it was often text-heavy and buried in a corner. It wasn’t contextual, task-based, or adaptive. Users weren’t guided; they were given static explanations and expected to self-serve.
4. No Safe Place to Be Wrong
One of the most powerful ideas in usability, from Nielsen’s work, is error prevention and recovery. If users are unsure whether an action is reversible — or if they’ll “break something” — they’ll avoid acting altogether. That’s not caution; that’s self-protection. They go to a human that knows what to do- their account manager.
Usability Is More Than Clean Design
Jakob Nielsen defines usability through five key dimensions:
Learnability
Efficiency
Memorability
Error tolerance
Satisfaction
And critically, he pairs usability with utility — the system’s ability to deliver the right features. Both are essential. Without usability, users can’t navigate the utility. Without utility, there’s no reason to engage at all.
Peter Morville’s UX Honeycomb builds on this, adding qualities like:
Findable
Credible
Valuable
Desirable
What I observed in these proxy interviews and recordings was a clear usability gap. The tools had functional value — but users couldn’t easily access that value on their own. They didn’t trust the navigation, didn’t see clear signposting, and didn’t feel confident exploring.
What This Tells Us
When adoption lags, it’s tempting to assume the product needs more features. But more often, what’s needed is better scaffolding — content that explains, architecture that guides, and a sense of orientation that gives users confidence.
People don’t “click around” when they’re unsure.
They ask for help.
They avoid using it.
They give up.
And that’s not a user failure — it’s a design one.
In conclusion, the real work of adoption isn’t just in building tools — it’s in making sure people can actually use them. That means designing not just for functionality, but for guidance, clarity, and confidence. In the next article, I’ll dive into how we can apply information architecture to reduce confusion and help users find what they need — before they ask for it.
Because adoption doesn’t start with a click. It starts with understanding.