The mantra “make it easy for your customers” is Business 101, making friction the ultimate enemy of any optimised digital experience.
Or does it? *dun dun dunn*
What if, in certain situations, creating friction—the very thing we usually try to avoid—could lead to greater value and a stronger connection with your audience? Perhaps, then, we should consider friction less like Lord Voldemort and more like Professor Snape (spoiler alert…although if you don’t know the ending to Harry Potter by now, that’s on you).
Much like the Philosopher’s Stone, friction used in the wrong way can have drastic consequences. But when strategically designed, friction can serve a purpose, enhancing trust, deepening engagement, and delivering outcomes that a smoother experience doesn’t achieve—no magic spells required.
What Is Friction, and Why Is It Usually Avoided?
Friction, in the context of customer experience, refers to anything that makes a process more difficult—extra steps, more decisions, or added effort. It often manifests in three forms—interaction, cognitive, and emotional—which rarely exist in a silo.
- Interaction friction is the technical hassle, like broken links, buggy navigation, or confusing layouts.
- Cognitive friction happens when users have to think too much. Imagine filling out a form that rejects your postcode or phone number without explaining why, leaving you to guess the right format.
- Emotional friction is the trickiest to tackle—it's how sentiments like confusion or frustration impact the user's feelings.
You don’t have to be a digital guru to understand that this isn’t very conducive to your business goals, which is why businesses traditionally aim to remove friction wherever possible.
But not all friction is created equal.
While unnecessary friction—poor website navigation, hidden fees, or convoluted customer support—can frustrate and alienate users, intentional friction can elevate an experience and provide greater value.
It’s all about purpose: friction that serves a greater goal becomes a tool, not a barrier.
The Value of Intentional Friction
When applied strategically, intentional friction can be a powerful weapon in your arsenal, from improving user engagement and conversions to fostering trust more effectively.
Easier said than done? Not necessarily. Here are our top ways that intentional friction can drive real value for your business:
1. Encouraging Long-Term Commitment
Take our work on the Tyne Tunnel 2 application, for example. A frictionless experience might sound like the best idea to get users started quickly, but without a structured user journey—with key engagement points like inputting VRMs and payment top ups—the platform’s true value was lost. While incorporating this intentional friction initially increased drop off rates, it also allowed us to gather essential user information that we could use to drive more meaningful commitment through long term adoption, improving user journeys and retention while ensuring the application delivers lasting value.
2. Strengthening Customer Trust
In e-commerce, we often focus on streamlining the checkout process. After all, an ultra-fast checkout is ideal for optimising your buyer’s journey…right? Not so fast (quite literally!). Adding steps like displaying itemised costs, clear return policies, and estimated delivery times are trust-building elements that will instil confidence in buyers, from reducing cart abandonment and minimising returns to driving repeat purchases.
3. Improving Data Quality
We don’t have to tell you about the importance of good-quality data. A lead generation form that enforces proper formatting—like implementing required fields, dropdown selections instead of open text, and email verification—helps filter out incomplete or inaccurate entries to ensure your data’s validity. Yes, it’s one extra step for users, but this intentional friction assures you that you’re collecting reliable, high-value data that safeguards your business by reducing risk and improving decision making.
4. Enhancing Internal L&D
Employee training is another great example. Platforms that let users passively consume content may feel easy, but…you know the score by now. While ‘frictionless’ training platforms fail to foster real learning, interactive modules, quizzes, and scenario-based problem-solving can be ultra-effective ways of empowering better development. It may require effort, but this friction ensures employees gain and retain valuable skills that can really enhance your internal capability.
That’s not to say that the strategic implementation of friction comes without its risks—if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it! Poorly designed or excessive friction can frustrate users, derail their journey, and damage trust, meaning it must always be handled with care.
To make friction work for you, embrace FRI:
- Focused: Align friction with goals for users and businesses
- Reasonable: Effort should match the perceived value
- Intentional: Communicate why friction exists and its benefits
To remember this handy anagram and keep FRI at the forefront of your friction strategy where it belongs, just take the first three letters from ‘friction’— or think of chips. We can’t be the only ones suddenly craving a McDonalds?
How to Use Intentional Friction Successfully
So now that we understand how and why intentional friction works, we’re missing just the final piece of the puzzle: how to put it into action.
Fear not—we’ve got your back. Here’s a refined four-step framework to ensure you’re always strategically implementing friction in a way that enhances your customer journey, not hinders it:
Step 1 - Identify the Goal: Before introducing friction, clearly define the desired outcome. Are you aiming to foster trust, improve decision-making, or increase long-term user engagement? Understanding the "why" behind the friction ensures that it serves a purposeful function in the overall experience.
Step 2 - Test and Iterate: Start small. Whether through prototypes, A/B testing, or user feedback, we recommend testing your friction points with real users to assess their effectiveness. This iterative process helps you fine-tune the friction to ensure it’s providing value without overwhelming customers.
Step 3 - Communicate Effectively: Transparency is key. Help users understand why the friction is in place and how it benefits them—whether it’s enhancing security, improving the experience, or helping them make better-informed decisions. This communication builds trust and makes the friction feel more like a positive choice than an obstacle.
Step 4 - Measure Results: Collect and analyse data on how the friction impact key metrics like user retention, satisfaction, and loyalty. Successful friction should lead to meaningful outcomes that align with your goals, so tracking performance is essential to determining its effectiveness and making necessary adjustments.
When applied thoughtfully, friction doesn’t just slow down a process—it adds value. Businesses that embrace purposeful friction are the ones that turn effort into opportunity most effectively, helping customers make better choices, strengthening trust, and priming the business for long-term success.
So, the next time you’re tempted to remove every obstacle from your customer journey, stop and ask yourself: could this friction be working in my favour? You might answer ‘yes’ more than you’d think…