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Discoverability 0:46
A 46-second explainer of Discoverability, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Discoverability demo
What this video covers
Discoverability is whether people can find out what an interface can do, and how to do it, just by looking and trying - without a manual, a tooltip or a tip-of-the-day. A feature that exists but can't be found doesn't really exist for most users; the function is only as useful as it is visible.
When the action was a hidden gesture, you hunted - and most people would simply have given up, never knowing it was there. When it wore a plain, labelled button, you saw it and used it at once. The feature was identical both times; the only thing that changed was whether you could find it. That's discoverability.