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Friction (1): costs to convenience

Friction is anything that makes it harder to for us to get something done – buy a product or use a service, do our jobs, learn something, enjoy ourselves.

There will always be friction – but poor design and execution and a lack of clarity about what things are for make it worse than it needs to be. For example:

  • unhelpful bureaucracy
  • long waiting times
  • extra travel
  • clunky interfaces
  • running things in series when they could be run in parallel
  • running things in parallel badly (e.g. grinding coffee and getting the milk out of the fridge before starting the kettle boiling)
  • Unnecessary approvals
  • lack of information (including opaque information) about what’s available, when and how, how much it costs, and other requirements
  • Dispersed or contradictory information
  • excessive security or controls compared to the risk (and always if poorly executed)
  • choke-points in buildings, single-checkouts in busy supermarkets
  • A lack of standards or consistency (think of Wi-Fi, electrical voltage, computer connections, weights and measures)

I'd love to hear your thoughts and recommended resources...

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