CHAPTER
8
Technology Friction
Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.
—Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group
Modern technology is a friction conundrum. Any number of tasks are infinitely easier, from booking an airline reservation to sending a message to someone on the other side of the planet. But, that same technology has given us incomprehensible interfaces, baffling error messages, and overloaded inboxes.
Technology doesn’t always increase friction, though. When the user experience is designed to be intuitive and effortless, it does the opposite. Unfortunately, user interfaces are often a product of utilitarian coding rather than the result of observing real user behavior.
Not ...
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