I was almost turned off of Connections by the poor instructions.
The instructions say that categories 'will always be more specific than "5-LETTER WORDS," "NAMES" or "VERBS"'.
Then one of the first puzzles I did had "PRONOUNS" as a category! That did not make a good first impression.
The interface also probably turns off some people who would otherwise enjoy it. It would be greatly improved if they replaced the "Shuffle" with letting you re-arrange the words by dragging them.