> Maybe tackle this problem first, then fall back to exposition.
You assume it can be tackled. Here's a concrete example:
The tool automatically snaps new windows to where user wants them to be. Rarely the user wants to undo that. The core functionality (autosnap) does not require any visible interface whatsoever. If I want user to see the undo button, I have to place it somewhere over his app's window, which bloats the interface (the undo is uncommon), or outright impossible, since some windows have custom titlebars.
So there's a hotkey, configurable in settings. How can you make it more discoverable?
Off the top of my head, do a highlight pulse on the two snapped edges, and over the app window raise an ephemeral notification "New window snapped, click here or press [hotkey] to undo".
This is just the first thing I have thought of. There are probably better options that require a little more thought.
What if it happens to many windows at once?
What if they end up covering each other?
Are you sure user wants to see that popup he'd hardly ever use every time he starts an app?
Well, the problem is that you have already been bombarding that user with a bunch of other useless features, so what they are going to do is to quickly skip through your tutorial and then end up swearing “why the hell did they decide to switch that functionality I am used to?”.
Also, I am yet to find a single piece of software that does snapping better than tiling window managers, so I am not so sure about your use-case.
Maybe tackle this problem first, then fall back to exposition.
One suggestion might be to start by removing hieroglyphic icons, or at least augmenting them with text labels.