(Image from colinvella, Wikimedia Commons) I’ve been thinking a lot about friction this week. One reason for this is that I keep encountering the word “frictionless.” It usually pops up in discussions of environmental design, business models, and customer experiences. In most of these discussions, the point is pretty obvious: the frictionless experience is the one where something (my product, your money, a piece of work) slides without any resistance from one place to another. My consumer junk into the trunk of your car, your cash into my wallet, my stultifying grant application into your cumbersome online submission system (1). In these contexts, frictionlessness is an aspiration. In culinary terms, the ideal meal might be the big forkful of butter-soaked mashed potatoes that slides down your gullet without meeting any resistance along the way. No trouble here, nothing to see, just relax and swallow. Though you hardly even need to swallow.
Friction in cities and other places
Friction in cities and other places
Friction in cities and other places
(Image from colinvella, Wikimedia Commons) I’ve been thinking a lot about friction this week. One reason for this is that I keep encountering the word “frictionless.” It usually pops up in discussions of environmental design, business models, and customer experiences. In most of these discussions, the point is pretty obvious: the frictionless experience is the one where something (my product, your money, a piece of work) slides without any resistance from one place to another. My consumer junk into the trunk of your car, your cash into my wallet, my stultifying grant application into your cumbersome online submission system (1). In these contexts, frictionlessness is an aspiration. In culinary terms, the ideal meal might be the big forkful of butter-soaked mashed potatoes that slides down your gullet without meeting any resistance along the way. No trouble here, nothing to see, just relax and swallow. Though you hardly even need to swallow.