User Friction in Product Design: Replacing Bad Friction with Good Friction

User friction refers to anything that hinders users from achieving their goals within a product. There are three types of user friction: emotional, cognitive, and interaction. Emotional friction relates to how emotions affect the ability and willingness of users to complete tasks in a product. Cognitive friction involves the amount of effort required to complete a task or objective. Interaction friction pertains to difficulties users encounter due to user interface design. Detecting user friction can be achieved through qualitative and quantitative data, including user interviews, usability testing, surveys, customer feedback, product analytics, rage clicks, error clicks, cursor thrashing, and pinch to zoom. Good user friction helps users make the most of a product by slowing them down temporarily to ensure they absorb important information. Optimizing user friction involves inserting strategic points of friction that improve the user experience. This can be achieved through self-service support, gamification, personalization, placing user guidance in the right places, and engaging users with high-quality in-product content. By optimizing user friction, product experiences can become more enjoyable and effective for users.