User Pain Points

User Pain Points are areas of difficulty or frustration for a user when using a product that makes the experience undesirable. These can be minor inconveniences or issues preventing users from accessing the product or service entirely. User Pain Points can also be difficulties users face with their daily tasks. Such problems are identified at the beginning of the product development process, to build user-centric solutions. They can be identified through User Research within the User Experience (UX) design process.

User Pain Points within existing applications are commonly described in three levels with four types at each level given below.

Pain Point Levels

• Interaction: User’s interaction with product or support
• Journey: The steps it takes a user to complete a task
• Relationship: User’s lifetime experience with a product or brand

Pain Point Types

• Financial: relates to paywalls and subscription services that lock a user out.
• Product: relates to the performance, quality, and usability issues while using a product
• Process: relates to the steps required to complete a task
• Support: relates to how organizations respond to user questions