Bringing Friction Back (thread)

In the past decade one of the major meta narratives in digital product design was removing friction. We were making everything easier, faster, effortless and seamless. Friction was archnemesis of good design.

We have quickly realized that in absence of friction it's easy to do not only good things, but also bad things.

It's never been easier to drown in algorithmic feeds where everything is automatically played and automatically recommended. It's never been easier to buy things that you don't need. It's never been easier to spread hate and misinformation.

The big theme of the next decade will be bringing the friction back. The right amount of friction. Meaningful friction. Here are few examples that I really like:

Instagram nudges you to think about posting rude commends and makes it really easy to undo
https://medium.com/facebook-design/using-thoughtful-design-to-fight-bullying-on-instagram-d7943d7cb721

WhatsApp has limited number of simultaneous forwards to five to slow down spread of misinformation https://blog.whatsapp.com/Keeping-WhatsApp-Personal-and-Private

. @jakek describes in detail how you can add more friction to your phone to control your attention better
https://maketime.blog/article/six-years-with-a-distraction-free-iphone/

Not all good things in life are easy and frictionless. In fact, friction and discomfort oftentimes go hand in hand with personal growth and development. I'm looking forward to having more friction in digital products.