Why UX pain points matter in the user journey

Every click, scroll, and hesitation tells you something about your users. When those signals reveal frustration or confusion, you’re looking at direct risks to conversion. 

To find and fix UX pain points in the user journey—before they cost you revenue—you have to focus on identifying blockers and removing friction in the moments leading up to sign-up, checkout, or another conversion event. Done well, this work transforms roadblocks into a seamless path forward.

Key takeaways

• UX is conversion-critical: even small blockers—like unclear labels or misplaced CTAs—can derail a user journey

• Pain points aren’t always obvious: what looks smooth in design reviews may cause frustration in the wild

• User behavior and emotional signals matter: rage clicks, hesitations, or repeated backtracking are just as telling as clicks and scrolls

• Fixes pay off fast: resolving friction reduces bounce rates, boosts conversions, and drives long-term satisfaction

How bad UX affects the user journey

Poor UX creates invisible leaks in the funnel. Users who can’t complete a simple task won’t stick around—they’ll abandon, complain, or head to a competitor who makes their life easier. These seemingly small moments of friction create a bad user experience and can add up to significant revenue loss.

• A cluttered checkout process → abandoned carts: even small points of friction in checkout (extra form fields, hidden shipping costs, limited payment methods) can cause users to abandon. Baymard Institute data shows the average cart abandonment rate hovers around 70%.

• A slow-loading mobile screen → users bounce before engaging: Google research has shown that as page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds, the probability of bounce increases by 32%. In today’s mobile-first world, delays are conversions lost.

• A confusing navigation menu → visitors never find what they came for: if users can’t find the product, feature, or information they expect, they won’t dig—they’ll exit. Complex information architecture or unclear menus create dead ends that block even high-intent visitors.

• Unclear pricing or fees → trust broken, conversions lost: nothing triggers user frustration faster than hidden costs or confusing pricing structures. Lack of transparency breeds skepticism, and once trust is broken, recovery is costly.

Bad UX blocks conversions in the moment and damages the perception of your brand long after the user’s session ends. Frustrated users are more likely to vent in reviews, less likely to return, and harder to win back with retargeting or remarketing. Put simply, poor UX erodes both short-term revenue and long-term loyalty.

Common user journey pain points and their causes

Here are some of the most frequent blockers you’ll encounter—patterns that show up across industries and user types, often hiding in plain sight until behavior analytics or user feedback bring them to the surface. Each one has a specific cause that, left unchecked, creates friction and revenue loss.

• Slow performance: laggy pages, long load times, or unresponsive buttons drive instant drop-offs

• Complex forms: too many fields, unclear validation, or lack of autofill lead to abandonment

• Hidden or unclear CTAs: if the next step isn’t visible or obvious, users stall or leave

• Poor mobile optimization: small touch targets, broken layouts, or endless scrolling frustrate on-the-go users

• Navigation dead ends: unclear menus, looping flows, or broken links stall progress

• Emotional friction: hesitation from fear—for example, hidden fees or confusing pricing

• Accessibility gaps: poor color contrast, missing alt text, or small tap targets exclude users and frustrate those with accessibility needs

Each of these may look small in isolation, but together they compound into major conversion blockers.

How to find and fix UX pain points in the user journey

The good news: UX pain points are discoverable and fixable. The challenge: they rarely appear where you expect. 

By combining behavior analytics (heatmaps, session replays, frustration scores) with direct user feedback, you can spot friction fast—and prioritize fixes by their revenue impact.

Walk in your users’ shoes

The first rule of good UX: don’t assume. Users rarely act the way product teams expect. 

A call-to-action that looks obvious to you might be buried below the fold on mobile, or a form field you thought was intuitive may be causing rage clicks.

Stepping into the user’s shoes—with behavior analytics tools like Contentsquare Heatmaps, Session Replay, and Journey Analysis—helps you understand how users actually behave and interact with your site or product, revealing obstacles you might have overlooked.

📌 Example: NatWest ran a journey analysis and uncovered a high exit rate on a product page. Heatmaps revealed their ‘Apply Now’ button was hidden below the fold on some devices. By optimizing the page’s content, the team decreased drop-offs and increased conversion rates.

Contentsquare Journey Analysis of NatWest’s Youth Savings page showing a high exit rate

Identify unmet user needs

Sometimes users arrive with clear intent but fail to complete an action because of avoidable friction, like confusing navigation, broken forms, or poorly timed CTAs. These quiet blockers drain conversions.

To spot them, pair heatmaps with on-site surveys:

• Heatmaps show you where attention goes—or doesn’t

• Surveys capture the why, letting users tell you what stopped them, in their own words

📌 Example: Charles Sturt University combined Journey Analysis and Heatmaps to identify login page issues. Key elements weren’t being seen, leading to a redesign that improved access and reduced friction.

Understand complex journeys across touchpoints

Today’s users rarely move through your site in a straight line. They might browse on mobile, compare reviews on desktop, and purchase on tablet. If you only optimize one touchpoint, you risk losing them in the handoff.

Creating an omnichannel user journey and running cross-device and cross-channel analysis helps you see the real flow and design experiences that meet users where they are.

📌 Example: Alo Yoga saw many users browsing on mobile but converting on desktop. Analysis revealed friction in the mobile checkout, leading them to build a dedicated app to increase conversions.

Beyond actions: spot user emotions

Not all pain points are visible in clicks and scrolls. Emotional cues—like frustration, hesitation, or delight—are just as critical.

Tools and capabilities like Contentsquare’s Frustration Score highlight these moments, surfacing signals such as rage clicks, dead clicks, or repeated backtracking. Pair those insights with findings from Session Replay to see exactly what triggered the negative experience.

Mapping emotions alongside actions ensures you solve not just functional blockers, but emotional ones too.

📌 Example: Thalys (Eurostar) discovered through click recurrence analysis that customers were repeatedly clicking on unclickable payment method options during checkout. Their confusion created unnecessary frustration and drop-offs. After redesigning the payment page and clarifying their messaging, Thalys cut repeated clicks and boosted conversion rates.

Align teams to resolve pain points faster

Pain points don’t just frustrate users—they slow down teams, too, when insights live in silos. Marketing may see drop-offs, Product may notice churn, and UX may hear complaints, but without a shared view, fixes take longer.

User journey insights collected from digital experience analytics tools create a single source of truth. When Marketing, Product, and Design collaborate on the same data, priorities are clearer and changes happen faster.

Give your entire team access to easily understandable behavior metrics with Contentsquare

From friction to flow: turning UX pain points into growth

Every unnecessary click, every confusing flow, every frustrated user is an opportunity to create a better experience. By focusing on user pain points within the user journey, you can:

• Spot blockers before they cost conversions

• Build empathy into design and product decisions

• Align teams around the highest-impact improvements

The result is a smoother experience for users and measurable lifts in conversion and acquisition for your business.

FAQs about UX and pain points in the user journey