CoinbaseEXAMPLE 01
Create a pause around a sensitive recovery action
Coinbase introduces a waiting period during account-access recovery. The delay is connected to a consequential action rather than added indiscriminately to ordinary browsing.
Intentional Friction
Slow people down when a mistake is costly.
01 / UNDERSTAND
The idea
An extra review, confirmation or deliberate input can help prevent an important error. The added effort should correspond to the risk and give people information that improves their decision.
An extra step can give someone time to understand a complex action, notice a risk or verify information. Friction can also be used to upsell or create an impression of effort, so examine whose goal it serves. The useful question is whether slowing down improves the person’s decision enough to justify the interruption.
02 / RECOGNISE
See it in real products.
Examples of how the principle can appear in an interface.
03 / CONNECT
Why it matters.
Slowing an interaction can improve understanding or draw attention to a consequence. It can also cause abandonment, so the reason for extra effort must be defensible.
Possible influences to investigate, rather than guaranteed outcomes for every product.
04 / APPLY
Put it into practice.
- 01
Match friction to consequence
- 02
Explain the impact before commitment
- 03
Provide recovery when possible
05 / EXPLORE WITH UPSLIDE
Apply it with Upslide.
Use a practical guide, read a deeper explanation, or examine a related Upslide project.
The SaaS Redesign Research Framework
Use role and permission boundaries to decide where a deliberate confirmation is useful.
10 Button Design Mistakes UX Designers Should Avoid
7 mins readCheck labels, feedback, disabled states and risky actions throughout a button’s state sequence.
Review document creation, review and approval in an e-BRMS workflow.
CONNECT THE IDEAS
Related principles
Keep exploring
