Thoughtful Friction: Why Seamless Isn’t Always the Goal in Service Design

I took a class from a renowned grad school professor who taught interactive design, and she had strong feelings about specific words. If you ever claimed your work was “intuitive,” Janet Murray would yell at you like Pee-Wee’s secret word of the day! She believed the word was misunderstood and overused. In her book Inventing the Medium, she defines an intuitive interface “as one that draws on tacit knowledge and well-established conventions to cue the behavior of the interactor to act appropriately in a new environment without explicit direction.” The class quickly struck the word from our vocabulary and adopted more precise descriptions. To this day, I still have a Pavlovian response, a little yelp, when I hear the word “intuitive.”

In service design, there’s another word we love to throw around: seamless. Many services we design aim for the friction-free, effortlessly connected experience across curated channels and touchpoints. It sounds wonderful, right? But what if I told you that sometimes the best thing for the customer—and the business—isn’t a seamless journey? It’s thoughtful friction.

Recently, I worked on a project where introducing friction into the customer experience was not only helpful but necessary. While I can’t share all the details (confidentiality and all), I can tell you how we strategically placed obstacles in the journey to create better outcomes for everyone involved.

When Friction Protects the Customer

As service designers, our first instinct is often to smooth out any bumps in the road for the customer. But sometimes, removing all the friction can lead to unintended consequences. In this case, adding a bit of resistance was actually in the customer’s best interest.

For example, when submitting a claim, customers might not realize that doing so could raise their insurance premiums or, in extreme cases, even result in a loss of coverage. Filing a claim—even for something as minor as a fender bender—can trigger increased scrutiny.

Our job was to help customers slow down and reflect on their actions, allowing them to understand the consequences before they clicked “submit.” This became especially important when emotions were running high after an accident.

Thoughtful Friction for Emotional Moments

Our research highlighted a key insight: even minor accidents can cause major stress. And when customers are stressed, they’re not thinking clearly. A frictionless process might encourage them to make rash decisions they regret later. Here, friction served as protection, not a hindrance. Across multiple interviews, we heard the importance of pausing, collecting your thoughts, and continuing with the right action.

By slowing down the journey, we allowed customers to process what was happening, which made things easier for employees, too. Fewer hasty decisions made misunderstandings or emotional confrontations less likely. The system worked better for everyone, guiding both sides to more thoughtful outcomes.

When Friction Benefits the Business

The friction we added didn’t just help customers—it also made things better for the business. Preventing unnecessary claim submissions reduced costs on both sides. Fewer claims meant fewer resources spent processing them, and in some cases, it even led to better long-term outcomes for the customers, who avoided premium hikes.

We also saw that adding friction led to more meaningful conversations between customers and employees. When customers weren’t rushing through the process, they were more open to discussing their situation with an employee and getting advice tailored to their needs.

Friction using Artificial Intelligence

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into service design, there’s a growing trend of using it to remove friction from customer and employee interactions. While reducing friction with AI can enhance convenience and efficiency, it also brings significant challenges, particularly around privacy, data security, and user agency. For instance, AI-driven customer support tools are designed to provide instant solutions, and recommendation engines quickly anticipate our needs. A key concern is ensuring that data is accurate and transparent while maintaining a balance where AI doesn’t remove too much control from users, inadvertently leading them down predetermined paths.

To mitigate these risks of AI, designers can introduce thoughtful friction, such as by offering clear explanations for decisions, requesting explicit consent, or providing opportunities for users to review or challenge outcomes. This approach preserves user agency and fosters trust, ensuring that AI enhances experiences without becoming overbearing or opaque.

Rethinking “Seamless” in Service Design

This project was a great reminder that service design isn’t one-size-fits-all. While seamless experiences are often crucial for speed and convenience, there are situations where adding friction leads to better outcomes for everyone involved.

So, next time you’re designing a service experience, ask yourself: could a little friction improve things? It might just give users the time to make informed decisions, reduce emotional stress, and add value to your business. By looking beyond the usual “seamless” goal, we can uncover opportunities to craft more thoughtful and balanced service experiences.

Resources and references

Rebecca Scheelservice designComment