Designing Friction in Products and Services Can Be Good
In Product Management, user friction is not always a bad thing. Let’s learn about how you can use friction to help consumers recognize what’s important and increase their trust in your product or service.
We often obsess over reducing friction for users. But have you considered introducing friction by design?
In recent years, the product management community has placed a great deal of emphasis on reducing friction for users. The goal is to create seamless, frictionless experiences that allow users to accomplish their goals with minimal effort or frustration. This approach assumes that the easier it is for users to complete a task or achieve a goal, the more likely they are to return to the product or service in the future.
However, it comes at the cost of potentially neglecting other important business goals. For example, in some cases, reducing friction too much can lead to decreased revenue, as users may not fully understand the value proposition or the steps necessary to convert.
No gatekeeping, no moderation, and no checks and balances could also invite bad actors and misfits.
Additionally, focusing too heavily on reducing friction can result in a commoditized product or service that fails to stand out in a crowded market. In certain cases, friction can help meet greater business needs.
Here are some real-world examples that while they seem to introduce a challenge to entry — they also demonstrate real value to consumers:
For consumers lacking good intent
Industries such as banking, finance and healthcare involve high risk and regulations and can attract bad actors trying to enter and game the system.
Introducing friction during onboarding can help filter out bad actors and protect existing customers.
For example, Bumble, the dating app, requires new users to verify their identities by submitting a selfie that matches their profile picture. This adds a layer of friction, but it also helps prevent fake profiles, creates trust between Bumble users and the business itself by promoting a safer dating environment.
Another example is Zocdoc, an online platform that allows patients to book appointments with healthcare providers. To use Zocdoc, healthcare providers must verify their licenses and credentials before they can use the platform. They also need to keep their calendar up to date and respond to patient inquiries in a timely manner.
This may sound like a hassle, but it can actually be really beneficial for providers and patients. By healthcare being required to provide credentials, this ensures there are no acts of fraud.
By keeping calendars up to date, doctors can avoid double-booking and ensure a smooth patient experience; And by responding to patient inquiries quickly, not only can providers signal trust towards their patients but also help maintain the overall trust towards the platform.
Also, from a regulatory standpoint, providers and doctors need to ensure that the Zocdoc platform is HIPAA-compliant to protect the privacy and security of their patient’s health information.
While these processes may take a bit more time, they help prevent fraud and protect their larger ecosystem of legitimate users.
For consumers lacking commitment
For enterprise software companies, they often require users to provide proof that they are a genuine business during acquisition to filter out hobbyists. Why hobbyists you ask? The difference between a real business and a hobby, is businesses have to report at least three years worth of profit to be considered a real business by the IRS.
While enterprise software companies can’t necessarily request IRS statements from prospects, they do prefer to sell to businesses with a sustainable profit record — because customers with that kind of persona or profile can contribute to the software company itself making a sustainable profit. This ensures that the company’s target market is the kind that can afford their services.
For example, Salesforce requires users to provide a work or business email during sign-up, then they offer a suite of enterprise-level tools and support.
Salesforce takes this approach because it ensures that when prospects sign up, they represent genuine companies; and a good way to do this is to ask for real company-generated email addresses. If Salesforce settled for just any email address, such as a personal Gmail or Hotmail address, then they would have a database of possibly email addresses from people who can’t afford their services, or a database of fake email addresses.
By adding a bit of friction, Salesforce can ensure that they are entertaining the right target market — mid-size to large-size companies — and that their resources are being allocated effectively.
For consumers lacking a budget
Let’s say you’re a lawyer, a personal trainer, or a career coach who charges high consultation fees. You want to make sure you’re not wasting your time on potential clients who are not committed or serious about your services, or they can’t afford them.
That’s why you might require them to fill out a pre-qualification questionnaire or schedule an introduction call with an assistant before engaging in further conversations. This makes sure that the clients you entertain are truly invested in the process and are able to afford the longer-term services you have to offer.
Adding this extra step is also beneficial for the clients who pass the initial filter because it helps them identify the right service provider for their needs and budget.
Help consumers recognize what’s important
When designing and/or improving products, it’s important for product managers (PM) to weigh the pros and cons of introducing friction. By finding the right balance between reducing friction and introducing it in a strategic way, product managers can take a holistic view of the goals of their business and different personas.
When introducing friction, it’s also important to directly or indirectly showcase the value for the user.
In other words — find ways to communicate to consumers what’s in it for them. Communicate why consumers should go through the extra steps. Communicate why it’s worth their investment and wait.
To leverage the power of friction is to use it as a tool to prioritize what’s important to consumers. By making certain steps a little more challenging or complex, you are signaling to the consumers that this decision is of greater importance than others.
For example, when Bumble requires consumers to fill out a detailed user profile during onboarding, that’s a signal that the business values personalized experiences and consumers who complete their profile are more likely to find the best matches or connections.
It also signals that the business maintains high standards of quality, and the users who are approved to join that community would see it as a privilege.
Highlight important features and their benefits
Consider the long walks that travelers in many airports, have to take from their arrival gate to baggage claim. While this may seem like an inconvenience, it actually serves the purpose of highlighting the airport’s efficiency and speed in delivering luggage to passengers.
By walking through a well-designed terminal with cafes and stores before reaching baggage claim, travelers can appreciate the convenience of having their luggage arrive promptly and without delay.
In a software context, let’s take the example of requiring users to complete a tutorial or walkthrough before accessing certain features. While these services are optional, tutorials and walkthroughs can help consumers understand the value proposition and unique features of the product. This is especially effective for complex products that require a learning curve.
With the power of friction, it’s ultimately an effective way to help consumers recognize what’s important; And when friction is designed successfully into software, product people and businesses succeed in highlighting the benefits of products or services. For consumers, that’s the definition of value.
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Special thanks to Tremis Skeete, Executive Editor at Product Coalition for the valuable input which contributed to the editing of this article.
