Something I’ve thought about quite deeply -
One could argue that my professional career began with the designing of physical space. The first internship where I actually did things was with a community and retreat center in Tanzania, where I spent 3.5 months. The center was run by an American couple that had been in East Africa for almost two decades, who arguably set many of the trajectories that have defined the 6 years since then.
The husband, Peter, had asked me to help design a set of cottages that would be used by overnight visitors. Informed by the tremendous “A Pattern Language,” I designed a space that would flow, feel safe, and encourage the sort of reflective behavior that characterized the center. I still see many of those principles at work in my life today.
The Physical
The first room that I lived in after college was a converted mud room. It was spacious, very affordably priced (especially for the Bay Area), and quite comfortable. The main drawback, which no one else seemed to focus on, was that the door to the rest of the house was a broken sliding glass door. Every time I wanted to open or close it, I had to push. It didn’t require much effort, but the door would make a slight noise that could be heard from the rest of the house.
My room also had another door, which led to the backyard. It was a normal door, but closed silently.
**prob need to find original Pattern language line about doors that close well*
The point is, that tiny bit of friction (a bit more effort to open and close, the associated noise) makes opening that door a whole thing unto itself. Which is friction. Which means I actually do it a lot less. And there are tons of examples of this architecturally.
The experiential
This extends to most human experiences. UX design is a realm that has taken this and tried to quantify it as much as possible. Minimize the number of necessary clicks. Minimize the time taken to complete a task. All of these are good examples of friction. But there are others that can’t be measured, that matter immeasurably. Take, for example, context switching. Or, the friction of having to leave the work context that you’re already in.
Why does so much work happen through emails? Partly because people don’t want the work of having to leave that context. This is where Slack came in, offering people a way to bring all the different threads into one place, from team discussions to customer requests. Slack bots are just a way to minimize friction.