Design AtlasFrictionless isn't always the goal. Cognitive psychologist Robert Bjork's concept of "desirable difficulty" describes friction that should be left in on purpose, because removing it makes outcomes worse.
**Bad friction** blocks users for no reason — forcing account creation just to read an article, or stacking redundant CAPTCHAs. **Good friction** sits deliberately in front of risky or hard-to-reverse actions — a delete confirmation, a payment summary screen, a brief "undo send" window after firing off an email.
One question separates the two: does this friction protect the user, or only the business? The latter edges toward a dark pattern.
A adds three pointless steps to a simple lookup and triggers a frustration cue; B adds one confirmation step before a destructive delete and triggers a safety cue instead.
When to use
Before speeding up a flow, classify each step as good or bad friction. For hard-to-reverse actions like delete, pay, or send, consider adding friction instead of removing it.