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My understanding is that within the fields of UX, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and system design in general, friction refers to anything that makes a users task more difficult, complicated or less efficient. For example, a design goal often associated with e-commerce is reducing friction as much as possible, so that the browse-to-purchase rate is as high as possible.

Is there a formal or widely agreed definition of Friction? I see the term used a lot but not a decent definition. Is there one term used universally, or do fields such as UX and HCI have their own specific ones?

Update - I'd also be interested to hear if there's a different term that means the same thing.

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  • thanks for bringing up such a thoughtful question! The term friction definitely gets tossed around a lot, and it’s cool to see people trying to pin it down. Commented May 15 at 22:05
  • Thanks Josh, if you know of any useful definitions or info, please feel free to provide as a new answer or comment. :) Commented May 15 at 23:08
  • The term “friction” definitely seems to shift depending on the context, and that can get confusing fast. Commented May 16 at 20:13

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I perused the incices of several books in my library, covering cognitive psychology, HCI text books, and seminal UX design titles. None of them list the term "friction." So I doubt that there is an established "academic" definition of that term.

Your description of what the term usually means, though, is spot on: Friction is any additional effort to reach a goal, especially if that extra effort is perceived as unnecessary.

That said, you may have run into intentional friction that actually servers the user: for example, having to type in the name of your account ID on publishing to confirm deletion of that account. In cases where the cost of inadvertently confirming an action is excessive, a simple "Are you sure? [Cancel][Delete]" dialog box probably does not provide adequate protection against potentially catastrophic data loss.

So, tedious extra steps are placed in the user's action path, thus increasing friction, and providing a safer user experience of that functionality.

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  • Interesting (re your library results). I found usabilitybok.org which also has zero references to friction. Commented May 13 at 2:01
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great question — I’ve also seen “friction” used all over the place, and honestly, I had the same doubt when I started diving deeper into UX.

From what I’ve learned (and experienced), friction usually means anything that makes it harder or slower for a user to do what they came to do — whether it’s filling out a form, finding a button, or understanding what action to take next. It can be something big like a confusing checkout flow, or small like an extra unnecessary click.

I don’t think there’s one “official” definition, but in UX we often just see it as any bump in the road that gets in the user’s way. Interestingly, sometimes friction is added on purpose — like when you’re about to delete something important and you get a confirmation message. That’s called intentional or positive friction, because it helps prevent mistakes.

So yeah, no one-size-fits-all definition, but in general it’s about reducing effort and frustration so the experience feels smooth. Curious to hear how others think about it too!

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