Usage of your systems comes down to how the user experience is designed. If it's easy and intuitive, it is much more likely to be used.

As for the brute force method, I don't know if this is already a paradigm. But, I've discovered it's an effective way to design user experiences.

It basically means putting yourself (and a few more people) in the shoes of the user and doing as many repetitions as possible. This will make the pain points obvious. Once the problems are clear, solutions come easily.

Apart from this, you can also track live users to understand how they're using the system and what their attention goes to.

Happy hardships :)