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UX Alone Won’t Cut It: The Six Elements That Drive Product Value

Philippe H.

September 12, 2025

Have you ever tried starting up a motorcycle only to hear nothing but a sad click? You can have a full tank of fuel, but if there’s no air, no compression, or no spark, that bike is going nowhere. It’s frustrating because from the outside, everything looks fine but something essential is missing under the hood.

Products work the same way. Too many teams treat usability like it’s the fuel that powers everything. Sure, it matters, but fuel alone won’t move you an inch. Without the other elements, the whole engine just dies.

And here’s the painful truth: this is where a lot of good products fail.

The Product Value Reality

Here’s the trap so many teams fall into: they think good UX means good usability. If people can click the right buttons, complete their tasks, and not get stuck, the team celebrates. And yes, that’s important, it’s frustrating to use something clunky or confusing. But let’s be honest: that alone doesn’t make a product valuable.

Think of it this way: fuel is useless if the spark plug is dead. A product can be totally “usable” and still leave people cold, frustrated, or even distrustful. Ever opened an app that technically worked fine, but you still deleted it after one use? That’s the difference between usability and true value.

This is where Peter Morville’s UX honeycomb comes in. His framework reminds us that value isn’t a single lever you pull. It’s an ecosystem. Six different dimensions have to work together if you want to generate real momentum.

Miss even one, and things start to wobble. A product can be incredibly useful but impossible to find. It can be trustworthy but boring. It can be slick and simple but inaccessible to a whole group of users. When just one of these dimensions is weak, people notice and they quietly drift away.

That’s why usability is the entry ticket, not the destination. It gets you in the game, but it doesn’t win you loyal users. Real value comes when all the dimensions: useful, usable, findable, credible, accessible, desirable click together. That’s when people don’t just use your product, they choose it, return to it, and recommend it.

The Six Dimensions of Value

It helps to think of these six dimensions like the walls of a house. You can’t live in it comfortably if even one wall is missing. The structure may stand for a while, but sooner or later, it collapses.

Here’s how each one plays out in the real world:

A. Useful

At its core, a product has to solve a meaningful problem. Think of Google Maps. It didn’t just digitize paper maps, it gave people real-time navigation, traffic avoidance, and nearby place discovery. It solves a problem you face every single day: “How do I get there quickly and with the least stress?” That’s usefulness on steroids.

B. Usable

A useful product falls flat if it’s clunky or confusing. Apple built its empire on usability. You don’t need a manual to use an iPhone, it just works. The gestures feel natural, the flows are smooth, and that effortlessness is why people of all ages, from teens to grandparents, can pick one up and feel at home.

C. Findable

Ever tried to use a TV remote where you can’t locate the right button? That’s what bad findability feels like. Spotify nails this. You can dive into a mood playlist, find that obscure band you liked in college, or even rediscover your “On Repeat” songs instantly. The content ocean is vast, but Spotify makes it navigable and that keeps users engaged.

D. Credible

No matter how usable or findable your product is, if people don’t trust it, they’ll walk away. Stripe is a masterclass in credibility. Payment is a sensitive area, one glitch or shady-looking checkout page, and people abandon their carts. Stripe’s clean design, strong brand, and developer-first reputation built the trust that turned it into a giant.

E. Accessible

Accessibility isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s a competitive edge. Microsoft has invested heavily here with features like Immersive Reader, voice control, and high-contrast modes in Office and Teams. They’ve opened the door for millions of people who might otherwise be excluded and in doing so, they’ve expanded their market. Accessibility isn’t just ethical, it’s smart business.

F. Desirable

This is the emotional layer, the reason people don’t just use a product but love it. Take Instagram. Plenty of apps let you share photos, but Instagram made the experience beautiful and addictive. The design, filters, and social pull created desire. It feels good to open it, which is why people keep coming back.

When you see these six elements together, you start to notice why certain products feel indispensable while others quietly fade. It’s not about nailing one or two, it’s about the full package.

That’s when people don’t just use your product, they talk about it, recommend it, and sometimes even build their routines around it.

Real-World Failures Despite “Good UX”

The catch is that even if usability is perfected, it can still fail if one more dimension is missing. Building a car without brakes but with an impeccable steering system is still a recipe for disaster.

Let’s examine how this manifests in the actual world:

Credibility gap: Do you recall the early days of cloud storage? Dropbox had many rivals. Many were fully functional; you could share links, sync folders, and drag and drop files. However, users were hesitant. Why? They had no faith that these unidentified platforms would protect their private or professional data. Dropbox won because its brand, polish, and messaging inspired confidence rather than because its usability was exceptional. Credibility converted usability into acceptance. Those other platforms vanished into obscurity without it.

Findability failure: A case study of frustration is Snapchat’s 2018 redesign. You could still send messages, take pictures, and browse content with the app. However, the redesign obscured the stories of friends and made it more difficult to discover the true reason people came. Loyal users were suddenly unable to find the most important features. Public outrage erupted, engagement plummeted, and Snapchat rushed to repair the harm. The lesson? If users are unable to locate what they value, usability is insufficient.

Desirability missing: Consider the abundance of fitness applications. Many of them are actually helpful; they track exercise, calculate calories, and connect to wearable technology. Additionally, they have simple flows, clean dashboards, and are entirely usable. However, they don’t inspire drive or camaraderie. They have the feel of sterile spreadsheets. In contrast, Peloton was a master of desirability. You want to return because of its instructors, social features, and design. Desire turns “just another app” into a way of life. Without it, even products that are usable and helpful are erased within a week.

Performance vs. usability breakdown: Amazon is renowned for its usability. Personalized suggestions, a straightforward search bar that simply functions, and a one-click checkout. However, there are performance hiccups every Prime Day. Carts lag, pages load slowly, and the otherwise seamless experience becomes sluggish. People are frustrated rather than thinking, “Oh, this is just a server issue.” The risk is that usability is brittle. Perception of ease collapses along with performance.

These aren’t rare edge cases, they’re the everyday reasons people abandon products that seemed “well-designed.” One missing dimension outweighs ten well-executed ones.

Building a Value-Based Practice

So how do you avoid falling into the usability trap? You have to zoom out. Morville’s honeycomb isn’t just a nice diagram for slides, it’s a practical tool you can use to stress-test your product at every stage.

Think of it like a mechanic’s checklist before a long road trip. You wouldn’t just glance at the fuel gauge. You would check the tires, brakes, oil, and battery. Likewise, you can’t just ask, “Is it usable? You have to ask:

• Does it truly address a current issue that people care about and is it helpful?
• Is it usable, smooth, and free of friction?
• Is it simple to locate, with the relevant features or information showing up when people need them?
• Does it project credibility through design, tone, and dependability?
• Can users of all skill levels and backgrounds use it, not just the “average” user?* Is it enticing, forging an emotional connection that promotes return visits?

The only way to answer these questions is with evidence. That means talking to users, not guessing. Running tests, not assuming. Looking at real usage data, not vanity metrics.

Take Airbnb, for example. They didn’t just design a beautiful app and call it a day. They learned from travelers that credibility: trusting the host, trusting the guest was the deciding factor. That’s why reviews, host profiles, and verification became such prominent features. It wasn’t about usability alone; it was about plugging the credibility gap.

Remembering that this is an ongoing process is essential. Expectations rise, user needs change, and products change. It is best to use the honeycomb as a continuous diagnostic tool. Consider which aspects we are getting better at and which ones we might still need after each release, feature rollout, and bug patch.You run the risk of patching the surface while cracks propagate beneath if you don’t.

Collaboration Over Tunnel Vision

The worst part is that no one team controls all six dimensions.Designers can make something usable and beautiful. But if the legal team botches the terms of service, you lose credibility. Marketing undermines trust if it gives false information. Entire user groups are excluded if engineers fail to consider accessibility.

That’s why tunnel vision kills value. If UX teams keep polishing buttons and tweaking flows while ignoring the bigger system, they’ll never close the real gaps.

• Credibility isn’t just a design problem. Stripe’s rise wasn’t about sleek checkout forms alone, it was a whole-company effort: marketing that reassured, legal frameworks that protected, engineering that kept uptime rock solid.
• Findability is rarely solved by UI tweaks. Spotify’s ability to serve you the perfect playlist comes from designers working with curators, data scientists, and content strategists. The interface matters, but the real magic is cross-disciplinary.
• Accessibility can’t be bolted on. Microsoft’s success in this space came from engineering teams, designers, and product leaders embedding accessibility into the roadmap not treating it as an afterthought.

If you want to build real value, you need to get out of the UX silo. That means partnering with product, engineering, marketing, customer support, legal, and yes, even finance. Because every one of those teams touches the dimensions of value.

The most valuable products in the world didn’t happen because a single team optimized their corner. They happened because companies worked as systems, making sure no part of the honeycomb was left weak or neglected.

From Usability to Holistic Value

At the end of the day, a product is like an engine. You need every element firing. Miss just one, and it won’t start, no matter how shiny the fuel tank looks.

Usability is fuel. But fuel alone doesn’t drive the bike.

So here’s your call to action: step back and audit your product holistically. Use the honeycomb to spot blind spots. Break out of the usability tunnel, and build something people actually value.