Acknowledge the fulfilment in the non-positive. Today’s digital technology creates a society that is in ‘pursuit of happiness’, in awe of positivity. (As a counterweight of the negativity it produces?) Smoothness doesn’t injure. It doesn’t produce resistance. It enforces the Like. These mechanisms feed our desire for attention and being seen. Designing friction cherishes the non-positive, the ‘digital unseen’, the disagreement, the doubt, the vulnerable, the complicated. This is what makes us human.
Perform your unpredictable self. Design environments and situations that trigger and facilitate unpredictable behaviour. De-automise. Step out of your pattern. Do something strange.
Friction perceived as an obstacle might in fact be a possibility for connection.
– Luna Maurer, Roel Wouters, Alexandra Barancová