Positive Friction

Minimizing friction is merely one means to a great user experience. The goal of any design is not to minimize friction, it’s to help the user achieve some end. Reducing friction is often consistent with that end, but not always.

When design is deployed wisely, it can bring us pleasure, choice, strength, beauty, comfort, decency, sensitivity, compassion, integrity, ambition, security, prosperity, diversity, camaraderie and so much more. But if its power is abused, the outcome can be wasteful, confusing, humiliating, scary, enraging, even dangerous.