Discoverability
How likely someone is to find out a feature exists at all, without being told. Shipped but hidden equals not shipped.
See it
What it is
Discoverability is the odds that a user finds out a feature exists without being told. It is separate from usability: a feature can be delightful once found and still be dead, because it lives behind a right-click, a hover-only icon, a keyboard shortcut nobody was taught, or a hamburger menu three levels deep. Shipped but hidden reads the same as never shipped in the analytics.
The levers are placement (visible in the surface where the need arises), labelling (a word plus an icon beats an icon alone), signifiers that hint at more (a peeking edge, a chevron, a partial row), and just-in-time prompts that appear when the user is doing the thing the feature helps with. Gestures and shortcuts are the worst offenders, so pair every one with a visible equivalent. Notice how apps teach 'swipe to archive' by animating the row slightly on first launch.
The tension is with progressive disclosure and clean UI: hiding everything makes a beautiful screenshot and an unused product. Resolve it by priority, not by uniform hiding. One or two features get permanent real estate, the rest get contextual entry points. Product tours can genuinely introduce a feature, but retention off a tour is poor because people click through to get to their actual task, so treat a tour as a weak supplement and never as a replacement for a visible, contextual entry point.
Ask AI for it
Improve the discoverability of [feature] in this UI. Give it a visible entry point in the exact context where the user has the need, labelled with a word plus an icon rather than an icon alone. Keep any keyboard shortcut or gesture, but pair it with that visible control and show the shortcut hint in the tooltip. Add a signifier where content is truncated or continues (peeking edge, chevron, partial next row) so more is obviously available. Add one contextual, dismissable hint that appears the first time the user is in a state the feature solves, and never show it again once used. Do not lean on a product tour or a modal on load to carry this: the feature has to be findable by someone who skipped both. List what you changed and where a user would now encounter the feature.