Friction as Growth
Friction as Growth
Why Frictionless Isn't Always Better
Summary
Every design principle taught in the last 20 years comes down to one commandment: remove friction.
Fast loading. Minimal steps. One-click checkout. Effortless authentication. Seamless onboarding. Frictionless experience.
We've been taught that the best product is the one that asks the least of you. We've built an entire industry around the premise that friction is waste, that effort is failure, that the user's time is sacred and should never be encumbered by unnecessary interaction.
And it's costing us growth.
Not growth in numbers. Growth in quality. Growth in retention. Growth in actual value delivered to users.
I didn't understand this at first. In my first three years of fintech design, I optimized for frictionless. I cut onboarding from 7 steps to 3. I reduced confirmation steps. I removed guardrails. I made everything as smooth as possible.
And users abandoned products faster. They trusted less. They understood less. They stayed less.
Around year four, something shifted. I started working with products that couldn't afford to be frictionless. Products for users with slow internet, formal constraints, literacy variations, and low trust in digital systems. And I discovered something that contradicts everything I was taught: friction, when designed intentionally, creates growth.
Not in the way Silicon Valley measures growth (users added, virality, scale). But in the way that actually matters: retention, understanding, trust, deliberate usage, and sustainable value creation.
This essay is about why frictionless design is a luxury good, why friction is the working person's growth secret, and why the most successful products in emerging markets are learning this truth while the West is still chasing smoothness.
The Cult of Speed
The obsession with removing friction comes from a specific context that became universal.
In the early 2000s, internet in developed countries was becoming fast. Devices were becoming powerful. User attention was becoming scarce. In that context, every millisecond mattered. Every step lost users. Every interaction cost.
Amazon optimized for one-click checkout because in that context, removing one click meant removing friction between the user's intention and their action. The principle made sense: reduce the gap between thought and action, and more transactions happen.
This principle was so powerful that it became law. It became doctrine. It became "good design."
By 2015, it was gospel. By 2020, it was invisible—so embedded in design practice that we stopped questioning it. Any design that required effort was seen as failure. Any friction was waste.
But here's what happened: a generation of designers optimized away everything, and the products that remained were optimized for single use. Fast in, fast out. Minimal understanding required. Minimal deliberation. Minimal reflection.
Today most applications are designed to have as little friction as possible. But constructive friction promotes reflection before doing something, illustrating how shifting from fast (impulsive) to slow (deliberative) thinking improves judgment in risk-laden contexts.
What the research shows—and what designers are only now beginning to admit—is that removing friction doesn't always create growth. Sometimes it creates abandonment. Sometimes it creates recklessness. Sometimes it creates forgettable products that users churn from.
Because friction, used right, is a signal. It's a moment of reflection. It's the difference between a purchase you regret and a purchase you own.
The Dark Side of Frictionless: What We Lost
Let me be specific about what happened when we optimized friction away.
In fintech, frictionless onboarding meant users could create accounts without understanding what they were entering. Then they'd discover complex terms they didn't understand and abandon. We optimized for account creation (up!) and destroyed retention (down!).
In social media, frictionless sharing meant users could post without thinking. Then we got harassment, misinformation, and regretted posts. We optimized for engagement (up!) and destroyed trust (down!).
In e-commerce, frictionless checkout meant users could buy impulsively. Then we got higher return rates, buyer's remorse, and support burden. We optimized for conversion (up!) and destroyed lifetime value (down!).
The frictionless movement created a world of products that are fast but forgettable. Smooth but soulless. Easy but untrustworthy.
Interfaces that are fast but forgettable. Experiences that optimize action but ignore intention. Now we have systems that move but don't feel. When every screen flows frictionlessly, the experience stops feeling alive. There's no sense of pacing. No rhythm to hold onto. Just a smooth slide into the next prompt. Speed without rhythm is noise. Flow without pause is forgettable.
This is the cost of frictionless: you've optimized away meaning.
Where Frictionless Still Works (And Where It Doesn't)
To be clear: frictionless has a context. It works when:
Users know what they want
The decision is low-stakes
The user already trusts the system
Efficiency is the primary value
Frictionless checkout works because you've already decided to buy. Frictionless navigation works because you know where you want to go. Frictionless password reset works because you've already verified your identity.
But frictionless fails when:
The user is uncertain
The decision is high-stakes
Trust hasn't been established
Understanding matters more than speed
Frictionless onboarding fails in fintech because users don't know what they're entering. Frictionless social sharing fails because users post without thinking. Frictionless financial products fail because users don't understand the terms.
The mistake wasn't optimizing for frictionless. The mistake was optimizing for frictionless everywhere. It was treating friction as a universal bad instead of context-dependent trade-off.
Friction as a Signal of Importance
Here's something I learned working in markets where products can't afford to be smooth:
Friction is a signal.
When something requires effort, it signals "this matters." When something is effortless, it signals "this is trivial."
Think about physical metaphors. A locked door signals "this is important, not for everyone." An open door signals "come right in." A document that requires you to sign signals "you're responsible." A digital action that's instant signals "no consequences."
In fintech in Kenya, where fraud is real and trust is fragile, users actually prefer friction in the right places. They want to see verification steps. They want confirmations. They want to be asked "are you sure?" before transferring money.
Why? Because friction signals that the system takes security seriously. Friction signals that this is important. Friction signals that someone's protecting their interests.
When M-Pesa added facial recognition verification, it added friction. Users had to take a selfie, wait for verification. But fraud dropped. More importantly, user confidence increased. The friction was a trust signal.
The frictionless-obsessed designer sees this and thinks "we should optimize that away." The sophisticated designer recognizes "that friction is doing important work it's communicating security."
Friction as a Learning Mechanism
There's something else friction does that research is only now documenting: it forces learning.
When a product requires effort, users have to pay attention. They have to think. They build understanding, not just habits.
Example: a frictionless app teaches you nothing. You tap, something happens, you move on. You've developed a habit, not understanding.
A slightly friction-ful app forces you to read, consider, decide. You develop understanding. You know why the system works. You're capable of handling edge cases.
A "frictional" perspective could entail slow interaction with technology or the focus on designing effort in using user interfaces that produce data to dispel opaqueness in existing practices. Design frictions can disrupt "mindless" automatic interactions, prompting moments of reflection and more "mindful" interaction.
This matters for products where understanding is safety. Financial products. Health products. Products where users make consequential decisions.
If users don't understand your product, they'll misuse it. They'll blame you for their mistakes. They'll churn.
But if users understand your product because you required them to read, think, and decide, they'll use it correctly. They'll trust it. They'll stay.
Friction as an Attachment Mechanism
The most surprising finding in recent design research: products with intentional friction have higher attachment.
This sounds backwards, but it's real.
Slow Design is a design philosophy that focuses on promoting well-being for individuals, society, and the natural environment. It encourages people to do things at the right time and at the right speed which helps them to understand and reflect on their actions. Applications of these principles indicate that Slow Design can have a positive impact on wellbeing and promote product attachment and the associated sustainable benefits of long term use.
Think about why this is true: when something requires effort from you, you invest in it. When you invest in something, you feel ownership. When you feel ownership, you don't abandon it easily.
Economist Richard Thaler calls this the "effort justification effect." Things that require effort to achieve are valued more highly than things that come easily.
This is why handmade products are valued more than mass-produced ones. Why relationships built through sustained effort are stronger than quick connections. Why products you have to learn are used longer than products you immediately understand.
In fintech, this translates to retention.
Products that require some friction in onboarding (reading terms, understanding features, choosing settings) have higher long-term retention than frictionless products. Users who invested effort in learning the product stay longer.
Verification Friction (Trust Building)
The first type of growth-creating friction is verification friction. This is friction that serves security.
KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements are friction. They slow down account creation. But they signal that the company takes security seriously. In fintech, this friction is trust.
In emerging markets, where fraud is endemic and trust is fragile, verification friction is often the difference between growth and failure.
PalmPay's facial recognition requirement added friction to account creation. But it signaled security. It reduced fraud. It increased confidence. And counterintuitively, it improved overall growth because retained users generated more value than the smaller number of lost users who couldn't handle the friction.
The growth paradox: more friction, fewer users initially. But the users who remain stay longer, spend more, trust more. Total lifetime value grows even though DAU shrinks.
This is the kind of growth frictionless designers don't measure, so they don't see it.
Type 2: Cognitive Friction (Understanding)
The second type is cognitive friction. This is friction that requires users to think.
OPay's interface is dense. It shows many payment methods, many options, many choices. A frictionless designer would hide complexity. OPay's designer made it visible. Users have to read. Have to choose. Have to understand.
Is this friction? Yes. Does it slow onboarding? Yes.
But it creates growth because users who complete onboarding understand what they're entering. They're less likely to churn due to confusion. They're more likely to use the product correctly. They build genuine understanding.
The growth paradox: more friction, more confusion initially. But clearer understanding creates better decisions, higher retention, more effective usage.
A study evaluated if intentionally added design friction affects users' level of satisfaction. Results showed that most participants would choose the mobile application with added design friction and felt more satisfied when they had a clear understanding of the goal of the task.
This is what the research shows: the moment users understand the purpose of friction, satisfaction increases.
Type 3: Behavioral Friction (Preventing Harm)
The third type is behavioral friction. This is friction that prevents users from hurting themselves.
Confirmation dialogs are friction. "Are you sure you want to delete this?" A frictionless designer would assume users know what they're doing and skip the confirmation.
But the research is clear: that one moment of pause prevents regretted deletions. It prevents accidental transactions. It prevents harm.
In fintech, this matters enormously. A confirmation screen before a large transfer is friction. But it prevents fraud and mistakes. The friction creates growth because it prevents churn from "I didn't mean to do that."
This is where frictionless fails most obviously. Speed that prevents regret is still regretted. The harm that happens because of frictionless design often happens invisibly—users who left without explaining why, decisions they regret later.
Type 4: Ritual Friction (Meaning Making)
The fourth type is ritual friction. This is friction that creates ceremony.
Fairphone is a modular smartphone designed explicitly to require user engagement. Users can repair it. Users can replace parts. This is friction—you have to engage with the hardware rather than just receiving a magic box.
But this friction creates meaning. Users who repair their phone feel ownership. They feel connection. They understand the device better. And importantly, they keep the device longer.
Slow Tech reframes technology as a craft, not a commodity. That means fewer one-size-fits-all platforms and more tools shaped by specific communities. It means resisting the lure of frictionless everything in favor of meaningful engagement. Friction, after all, can be informative. It tells us when something doesn't feel right.
Ritual friction creates growth through retention. Not because users are forced to stay, but because they've invested meaning in the product.
How Friction Drive Growth
Growth Type 1: Retention Growth
Frictionless design optimizes for acquisition growth (new users) at the cost of retention (keeping them).
Friction-designed products optimize for retention growth. Fewer users initially, but they stay longer.
In fintech, retention growth compounds faster than acquisition growth. A user who stays for three years generates more value than ten users who stay for one month.
The math is simple:
Frictionless approach: 100 users acquired, 10% monthly retention = 90% churn
Friction approach: 40 users acquired, 30% monthly retention = 70% monthly churn
Year one: frictionless wins. Year three: friction approach compounds into more value.
Most companies measure quarterly growth, so they optimize for frictionless (which shows faster short-term growth). But sustainable growth comes from retention, which friction improves.
Growth Type 2: Value Growth
Frictionless design optimizes for usage volume (how many times you use the product). Friction-designed products optimize for value per usage (how much each usage is worth).
In fintech, volume growth and value growth are different. OPay has volume growth (15M daily transactions). But M-Pesa's users do more with fewer interactions—they've learned the system so deeply that every interaction is intentional, valuable.
Value growth means users are more likely to spend money, make important decisions, transact larger amounts because they trust the system.
Frictionless products get more usage but less value per usage. Friction products get less usage but higher value per usage. Total growth is higher in friction products.
Growth Type 3: Network Growth
Frictionless design enables rapid scaling (get to millions fast).
Friction-designed products enable trust-based network growth (users recommend to friends because they trust it).
In emerging markets, network growth through trust is more powerful than growth through advertising. Word-of-mouth in informal economies is how things spread.
M-Pesa grew not because Safaricom advertised heavily, but because users trusted it and told their friends. That trust came from the system working reliably and being verified (friction signals).
Friction-designed products generate organic network growth because users actively recommend them. They're emotionally invested.
Growth Type 4: Revenue Growth
Frictionless design generates transaction volume growth (lots of small transactions).
Friction-designed products generate value growth (fewer but more meaningful transactions).
In fintech, transaction volume without value is waste. You process billions of transactions and generate nothing because margins are thin on small transactions.
But friction-designed products drive larger, more intentional transactions. Users who took time to understand the product make bigger decisions. They're willing to pay for premium features. They're willing to transact larger amounts.
Revenue growth in friction products is higher because intent is higher.
Fiction in Emerging Markets
Emerging markets never had frictionless as an option.
Internet is slow. Devices are weak. Users are first-time digital. There's no choice but friction.
So instead of treating friction as a problem, designers in emerging markets learned to design with it. To use it. To make it work.
M-Pesa couldn't be frictionless—the technology didn't support it. So they designed friction that communicated security.
PalmPay couldn't offer seamless onboarding—regulatory constraints and fraud concerns required verification. So they designed friction that built trust.
OPay couldn't simplify—they needed to show flexibility to serve diverse users. So they designed density that enabled choice.
These weren't compromises. These were discoveries about what actually drives growth.
Now, as frictionless products in the West hit maturity and churn, designers are discovering what emerging market designers never forgot: friction, when designed right, grows better.
Slow Tech is a loosely knit, highly intentional countercurrent pushing back against the metrics of disruption and exponential growth. It asks: What if we designed technology the way we cook a good meal—with patience, presence, and attention to nourishment? Rejecting Speed and Scale for Depth and Sustainability.
The West is discovering slow. Emerging markets have always lived it.
Fiction that Grows
The Critical Distinction: Intentional vs. Accidental Friction
Not all friction is equal.
Accidental friction is friction that serves no purpose. A form that's slow because it's poorly optimized. A confirmation that's confusing. A process that requires unclear steps.
Accidental friction kills growth. Users hate it. It signals incompetence.
Intentional friction is friction that serves a clear purpose. Verification that prevents fraud. Confirmation that prevents harm. Complexity that enables powerful choice.
Intentional friction improves growth. Users tolerate it, even appreciate it, because they understand why it exists.
The difference is communication. When friction has purpose that's visible, users accept it. When friction is unexplained, users resent it.
Example: a 10-step process that each step clearly progresses toward onboarding is accepted. A 10-step process that feels redundant is resented.
The first is intentional. The second is accidental.
Design Principles for Intentional Friction
Based on what's working in emerging market fintech, here's how to design friction that grows:
Principle 1: Make the Purpose Visible
When you add friction, explain why immediately. Not in a help center. Right there.
"We require facial recognition to prevent fraud." "This confirmation prevents accidental transfers." "These payment methods serve different needs—choose what works for you."
Users accept friction when purpose is clear.
Principle 2: Make Progress Visible
Friction is less painful when you see progress.
"Step 2 of 4" is better than "Fill out this form." A progress bar is better than appearing steps. Visual feedback that shows friction is moving you somewhere is better than friction that feels stuck.
Principle 3: Make Friction Proportional to Risk
Verify high-stakes actions. Don't verify trivial actions.
Large transfers should have friction. Changing your name should have friction. But viewing your balance shouldn't.
When friction is proportional to importance, users see it as smart design, not annoying design.
Principle 4: Make Friction Breakable
Sometimes users need to skip friction. Power users especially.
But don't make it easy. Make it visible that you're taking a risk. Make the user confirm they understand they're skipping verification.
This enables both easy usage for trusted users and safety for first-time users.
Principle 5: Measure Friction Correctly
Don't measure friction by onboarding speed. Measure by downstream retention and value.
Friction that slows onboarding is only bad if it increases churn. If it improves retention, it's good friction.
Measure:
What % of users complete onboarding?
Of those who complete, what's their retention?
Of those who stay, what's their lifetime value?
If friction increases completion rate and retention, it's working.
The Calculation Nobody Does
Most companies compare frictionless vs. friction by looking at conversion rate.
Frictionless: 50% onboarding completion. Friction: 30% onboarding completion.
Frictionless wins. So companies choose frictionless.
But this ignores the downstream math.
Frictionless users: 30% monthly retention, $100 lifetime value. Friction users: 70% monthly retention, $500 lifetime value.
Now do the total lifetime value calculation:
Frictionless approach: 1000 users acquired → 500 complete onboarding → 50 remain after year 1 → $5,000 lifetime value. Friction approach: 1000 users acquired → 300 complete onboarding → 210 remain after year 1 → $105,000 lifetime value.
Friction grows 21x better over time.
But frictionless won on the metric companies measure (conversion), so companies choose frictionless.
This is the mistake most companies make: they measure what's easy to measure (acquisition) instead of what matters (lifetime value).
The Time Horizon Problem
Friction creates longer-term growth. Frictionless creates short-term growth.
Companies funded on quarterly results optimize for frictionless (shows immediate growth). Companies funded on long-term metrics optimize for friction (shows compounding growth).
This explains why startup fintech products are often frictionless (need to show growth fast) while mature fintech products are more friction-ful (can optimize for retention).
It also explains why emerging market products are often more friction-ful—they can't afford the growth metric game. They have to optimize for actual economics.
Friction Works Better in Collectivist Contexts
Friction requires deliberation. Deliberation requires time. Time is more available in cultures that aren't optimized for individual speed.
In collectivist cultures, decision-making is deliberative. You discuss with family, friends, community before deciding. Friction that requires thought aligns with cultural values.
In individualistic cultures, decision-making is fast. You decide and move. Friction that requires thought violates cultural values.
This explains why friction-designed products work well in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana—where cultural norms support deliberative decision-making.
It also explains why frictionless works well in the US—where cultural norms value speed and individual choice.
Neither is wrong. They're culturally appropriate.
But the insight is this: for markets where cultural norms are collectivist and deliberative, friction isn't just acceptable—it's expected. And it creates growth.
Why Trust Requires Friction
In low-trust contexts (emerging markets with high fraud), friction is how you signal trustworthiness.
In high-trust contexts (developed markets with regulation and insurance), friction isn't necessary for trust.
This explains why OPay and PalmPay's friction works—users expect friction from institutions they don't trust yet. Friction signals "we take this seriously."
In the US, users assume trust and resent friction. In Nigeria, users assume risk and appreciate friction that signals verification
Conclusion
I started this essay saying frictionless is a luxury good.
That's true. It's a luxury that exists only in contexts where trust is high, infrastructure is reliable, and users already understand what they're entering.
For everyone else—the majority of the world—friction is the growth mechanism.
The frictionless movement was a brilliant solution to a specific problem (fast interactions in high-trust contexts). But we mistook the solution for universal truth.
Friction-designed products don't optimize for how many people use them initially. They optimize for how much value those people create over time. They're not prettier. They're not faster. But they're more sustainable, more trusted, more valuable.
In fintech, in emerging markets, in cultures where deliberation is valued, friction-designed products are winning.
The question isn't whether frictionless is better. The question is: what kind of growth do you want?
Growth in acquisition? Choose frictionless. Growth in retention? Choose friction. Growth in lifetime value? Choose friction. Growth in sustainability? Choose friction.
Most companies are optimizing for the wrong growth. They're choosing speed when they should be choosing depth. They're choosing acquisition when they should be choosing retention.
The products that will dominate emerging markets in the next decade won't be the frictionless ones copied from Silicon Valley. They'll be designed for their context, with intentional friction that builds trust, understanding, and attachment.
And they'll grow differently. Slower initially, but deeper and more sustainable.
That's not a compromise. That's the actual growth secret.
References
Sheahan, J., et al. (2024). "Designing with Friction: Inverting Notions of Seamless Technology" - NordiCHI 2024 Conference
Mejto, T., Hale, S., & Söderström, U. (2019). "Design Friction" - 31st European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics
Academic research on Slow Design, 2019-2025
Literature review on friction as method for reflection in design interventions, 2024-2025
Critical Playground (2025) - "The Quiet Rise of Slow Tech"
Agustin Sanchez (May 2025) - "Friction in design isn't a flaw. It's a feature" - Medium
Kahneman, D. (2011) - "Thinking, Fast and Slow"
Tsing, A. L. (2011) - "Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection"
Self-Determination Theory research on motivation in HCI
Fairphone and modular design sustainability research
Fintech case studies: M-Pesa, OPay, PalmPay (2024-2025)
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Friction as Growth
Friction as Growth
Friction as Growth
Friction as Growth
Why Frictionless Isn't Always Better
Summary
Every design principle taught in the last 20 years comes down to one commandment: remove friction.
Fast loading. Minimal steps. One-click checkout. Effortless authentication. Seamless onboarding. Frictionless experience.
We've been taught that the best product is the one that asks the least of you. We've built an entire industry around the premise that friction is waste, that effort is failure, that the user's time is sacred and should never be encumbered by unnecessary interaction.
And it's costing us growth.
Not growth in numbers. Growth in quality. Growth in retention. Growth in actual value delivered to users.
I didn't understand this at first. In my first three years of fintech design, I optimized for frictionless. I cut onboarding from 7 steps to 3. I reduced confirmation steps. I removed guardrails. I made everything as smooth as possible.
And users abandoned products faster. They trusted less. They understood less. They stayed less.
Around year four, something shifted. I started working with products that couldn't afford to be frictionless. Products for users with slow internet, formal constraints, literacy variations, and low trust in digital systems. And I discovered something that contradicts everything I was taught: friction, when designed intentionally, creates growth.
Not in the way Silicon Valley measures growth (users added, virality, scale). But in the way that actually matters: retention, understanding, trust, deliberate usage, and sustainable value creation.
This essay is about why frictionless design is a luxury good, why friction is the working person's growth secret, and why the most successful products in emerging markets are learning this truth while the West is still chasing smoothness.
The Cult of Speed
The obsession with removing friction comes from a specific context that became universal.
In the early 2000s, internet in developed countries was becoming fast. Devices were becoming powerful. User attention was becoming scarce. In that context, every millisecond mattered. Every step lost users. Every interaction cost.
Amazon optimized for one-click checkout because in that context, removing one click meant removing friction between the user's intention and their action. The principle made sense: reduce the gap between thought and action, and more transactions happen.
This principle was so powerful that it became law. It became doctrine. It became "good design."
By 2015, it was gospel. By 2020, it was invisible—so embedded in design practice that we stopped questioning it. Any design that required effort was seen as failure. Any friction was waste.
But here's what happened: a generation of designers optimized away everything, and the products that remained were optimized for single use. Fast in, fast out. Minimal understanding required. Minimal deliberation. Minimal reflection.
Today most applications are designed to have as little friction as possible. But constructive friction promotes reflection before doing something, illustrating how shifting from fast (impulsive) to slow (deliberative) thinking improves judgment in risk-laden contexts.
What the research shows—and what designers are only now beginning to admit—is that removing friction doesn't always create growth. Sometimes it creates abandonment. Sometimes it creates recklessness. Sometimes it creates forgettable products that users churn from.
Because friction, used right, is a signal. It's a moment of reflection. It's the difference between a purchase you regret and a purchase you own.
The Dark Side of Frictionless: What We Lost
Let me be specific about what happened when we optimized friction away.
In fintech, frictionless onboarding meant users could create accounts without understanding what they were entering. Then they'd discover complex terms they didn't understand and abandon. We optimized for account creation (up!) and destroyed retention (down!).
In social media, frictionless sharing meant users could post without thinking. Then we got harassment, misinformation, and regretted posts. We optimized for engagement (up!) and destroyed trust (down!).
In e-commerce, frictionless checkout meant users could buy impulsively. Then we got higher return rates, buyer's remorse, and support burden. We optimized for conversion (up!) and destroyed lifetime value (down!).
The frictionless movement created a world of products that are fast but forgettable. Smooth but soulless. Easy but untrustworthy.
Interfaces that are fast but forgettable. Experiences that optimize action but ignore intention. Now we have systems that move but don't feel. When every screen flows frictionlessly, the experience stops feeling alive. There's no sense of pacing. No rhythm to hold onto. Just a smooth slide into the next prompt. Speed without rhythm is noise. Flow without pause is forgettable.
This is the cost of frictionless: you've optimized away meaning.
Where Frictionless Still Works (And Where It Doesn't)
To be clear: frictionless has a context. It works when:
Users know what they want
The decision is low-stakes
The user already trusts the system
Efficiency is the primary value
Frictionless checkout works because you've already decided to buy. Frictionless navigation works because you know where you want to go. Frictionless password reset works because you've already verified your identity.
But frictionless fails when:
The user is uncertain
The decision is high-stakes
Trust hasn't been established
Understanding matters more than speed
Frictionless onboarding fails in fintech because users don't know what they're entering. Frictionless social sharing fails because users post without thinking. Frictionless financial products fail because users don't understand the terms.
The mistake wasn't optimizing for frictionless. The mistake was optimizing for frictionless everywhere. It was treating friction as a universal bad instead of context-dependent trade-off.
Friction as a Signal of Importance
Here's something I learned working in markets where products can't afford to be smooth:
Friction is a signal.
When something requires effort, it signals "this matters." When something is effortless, it signals "this is trivial."
Think about physical metaphors. A locked door signals "this is important, not for everyone." An open door signals "come right in." A document that requires you to sign signals "you're responsible." A digital action that's instant signals "no consequences."
In fintech in Kenya, where fraud is real and trust is fragile, users actually prefer friction in the right places. They want to see verification steps. They want confirmations. They want to be asked "are you sure?" before transferring money.
Why? Because friction signals that the system takes security seriously. Friction signals that this is important. Friction signals that someone's protecting their interests.
When M-Pesa added facial recognition verification, it added friction. Users had to take a selfie, wait for verification. But fraud dropped. More importantly, user confidence increased. The friction was a trust signal.
The frictionless-obsessed designer sees this and thinks "we should optimize that away." The sophisticated designer recognizes "that friction is doing important work it's communicating security."
Friction as a Learning Mechanism
There's something else friction does that research is only now documenting: it forces learning.
When a product requires effort, users have to pay attention. They have to think. They build understanding, not just habits.
Example: a frictionless app teaches you nothing. You tap, something happens, you move on. You've developed a habit, not understanding.
A slightly friction-ful app forces you to read, consider, decide. You develop understanding. You know why the system works. You're capable of handling edge cases.
A "frictional" perspective could entail slow interaction with technology or the focus on designing effort in using user interfaces that produce data to dispel opaqueness in existing practices. Design frictions can disrupt "mindless" automatic interactions, prompting moments of reflection and more "mindful" interaction.
This matters for products where understanding is safety. Financial products. Health products. Products where users make consequential decisions.
If users don't understand your product, they'll misuse it. They'll blame you for their mistakes. They'll churn.
But if users understand your product because you required them to read, think, and decide, they'll use it correctly. They'll trust it. They'll stay.
Friction as an Attachment Mechanism
The most surprising finding in recent design research: products with intentional friction have higher attachment.
This sounds backwards, but it's real.
Slow Design is a design philosophy that focuses on promoting well-being for individuals, society, and the natural environment. It encourages people to do things at the right time and at the right speed which helps them to understand and reflect on their actions. Applications of these principles indicate that Slow Design can have a positive impact on wellbeing and promote product attachment and the associated sustainable benefits of long term use.
Think about why this is true: when something requires effort from you, you invest in it. When you invest in something, you feel ownership. When you feel ownership, you don't abandon it easily.
Economist Richard Thaler calls this the "effort justification effect." Things that require effort to achieve are valued more highly than things that come easily.
This is why handmade products are valued more than mass-produced ones. Why relationships built through sustained effort are stronger than quick connections. Why products you have to learn are used longer than products you immediately understand.
In fintech, this translates to retention.
Products that require some friction in onboarding (reading terms, understanding features, choosing settings) have higher long-term retention than frictionless products. Users who invested effort in learning the product stay longer.
Verification Friction (Trust Building)
The first type of growth-creating friction is verification friction. This is friction that serves security.
KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements are friction. They slow down account creation. But they signal that the company takes security seriously. In fintech, this friction is trust.
In emerging markets, where fraud is endemic and trust is fragile, verification friction is often the difference between growth and failure.
PalmPay's facial recognition requirement added friction to account creation. But it signaled security. It reduced fraud. It increased confidence. And counterintuitively, it improved overall growth because retained users generated more value than the smaller number of lost users who couldn't handle the friction.
The growth paradox: more friction, fewer users initially. But the users who remain stay longer, spend more, trust more. Total lifetime value grows even though DAU shrinks.
This is the kind of growth frictionless designers don't measure, so they don't see it.
Type 2: Cognitive Friction (Understanding)
The second type is cognitive friction. This is friction that requires users to think.
OPay's interface is dense. It shows many payment methods, many options, many choices. A frictionless designer would hide complexity. OPay's designer made it visible. Users have to read. Have to choose. Have to understand.
Is this friction? Yes. Does it slow onboarding? Yes.
But it creates growth because users who complete onboarding understand what they're entering. They're less likely to churn due to confusion. They're more likely to use the product correctly. They build genuine understanding.
The growth paradox: more friction, more confusion initially. But clearer understanding creates better decisions, higher retention, more effective usage.
A study evaluated if intentionally added design friction affects users' level of satisfaction. Results showed that most participants would choose the mobile application with added design friction and felt more satisfied when they had a clear understanding of the goal of the task.
This is what the research shows: the moment users understand the purpose of friction, satisfaction increases.
Type 3: Behavioral Friction (Preventing Harm)
The third type is behavioral friction. This is friction that prevents users from hurting themselves.
Confirmation dialogs are friction. "Are you sure you want to delete this?" A frictionless designer would assume users know what they're doing and skip the confirmation.
But the research is clear: that one moment of pause prevents regretted deletions. It prevents accidental transactions. It prevents harm.
In fintech, this matters enormously. A confirmation screen before a large transfer is friction. But it prevents fraud and mistakes. The friction creates growth because it prevents churn from "I didn't mean to do that."
This is where frictionless fails most obviously. Speed that prevents regret is still regretted. The harm that happens because of frictionless design often happens invisibly—users who left without explaining why, decisions they regret later.
Type 4: Ritual Friction (Meaning Making)
The fourth type is ritual friction. This is friction that creates ceremony.
Fairphone is a modular smartphone designed explicitly to require user engagement. Users can repair it. Users can replace parts. This is friction—you have to engage with the hardware rather than just receiving a magic box.
But this friction creates meaning. Users who repair their phone feel ownership. They feel connection. They understand the device better. And importantly, they keep the device longer.
Slow Tech reframes technology as a craft, not a commodity. That means fewer one-size-fits-all platforms and more tools shaped by specific communities. It means resisting the lure of frictionless everything in favor of meaningful engagement. Friction, after all, can be informative. It tells us when something doesn't feel right.
Ritual friction creates growth through retention. Not because users are forced to stay, but because they've invested meaning in the product.
How Friction Drive Growth
Growth Type 1: Retention Growth
Frictionless design optimizes for acquisition growth (new users) at the cost of retention (keeping them).
Friction-designed products optimize for retention growth. Fewer users initially, but they stay longer.
In fintech, retention growth compounds faster than acquisition growth. A user who stays for three years generates more value than ten users who stay for one month.
The math is simple:
Frictionless approach: 100 users acquired, 10% monthly retention = 90% churn
Friction approach: 40 users acquired, 30% monthly retention = 70% monthly churn
Year one: frictionless wins. Year three: friction approach compounds into more value.
Most companies measure quarterly growth, so they optimize for frictionless (which shows faster short-term growth). But sustainable growth comes from retention, which friction improves.
Growth Type 2: Value Growth
Frictionless design optimizes for usage volume (how many times you use the product). Friction-designed products optimize for value per usage (how much each usage is worth).
In fintech, volume growth and value growth are different. OPay has volume growth (15M daily transactions). But M-Pesa's users do more with fewer interactions—they've learned the system so deeply that every interaction is intentional, valuable.
Value growth means users are more likely to spend money, make important decisions, transact larger amounts because they trust the system.
Frictionless products get more usage but less value per usage. Friction products get less usage but higher value per usage. Total growth is higher in friction products.
Growth Type 3: Network Growth
Frictionless design enables rapid scaling (get to millions fast).
Friction-designed products enable trust-based network growth (users recommend to friends because they trust it).
In emerging markets, network growth through trust is more powerful than growth through advertising. Word-of-mouth in informal economies is how things spread.
M-Pesa grew not because Safaricom advertised heavily, but because users trusted it and told their friends. That trust came from the system working reliably and being verified (friction signals).
Friction-designed products generate organic network growth because users actively recommend them. They're emotionally invested.
Growth Type 4: Revenue Growth
Frictionless design generates transaction volume growth (lots of small transactions).
Friction-designed products generate value growth (fewer but more meaningful transactions).
In fintech, transaction volume without value is waste. You process billions of transactions and generate nothing because margins are thin on small transactions.
But friction-designed products drive larger, more intentional transactions. Users who took time to understand the product make bigger decisions. They're willing to pay for premium features. They're willing to transact larger amounts.
Revenue growth in friction products is higher because intent is higher.
Fiction in Emerging Markets
Emerging markets never had frictionless as an option.
Internet is slow. Devices are weak. Users are first-time digital. There's no choice but friction.
So instead of treating friction as a problem, designers in emerging markets learned to design with it. To use it. To make it work.
M-Pesa couldn't be frictionless—the technology didn't support it. So they designed friction that communicated security.
PalmPay couldn't offer seamless onboarding—regulatory constraints and fraud concerns required verification. So they designed friction that built trust.
OPay couldn't simplify—they needed to show flexibility to serve diverse users. So they designed density that enabled choice.
These weren't compromises. These were discoveries about what actually drives growth.
Now, as frictionless products in the West hit maturity and churn, designers are discovering what emerging market designers never forgot: friction, when designed right, grows better.
Slow Tech is a loosely knit, highly intentional countercurrent pushing back against the metrics of disruption and exponential growth. It asks: What if we designed technology the way we cook a good meal—with patience, presence, and attention to nourishment? Rejecting Speed and Scale for Depth and Sustainability.
The West is discovering slow. Emerging markets have always lived it.
Fiction that Grows
The Critical Distinction: Intentional vs. Accidental Friction
Not all friction is equal.
Accidental friction is friction that serves no purpose. A form that's slow because it's poorly optimized. A confirmation that's confusing. A process that requires unclear steps.
Accidental friction kills growth. Users hate it. It signals incompetence.
Intentional friction is friction that serves a clear purpose. Verification that prevents fraud. Confirmation that prevents harm. Complexity that enables powerful choice.
Intentional friction improves growth. Users tolerate it, even appreciate it, because they understand why it exists.
The difference is communication. When friction has purpose that's visible, users accept it. When friction is unexplained, users resent it.
Example: a 10-step process that each step clearly progresses toward onboarding is accepted. A 10-step process that feels redundant is resented.
The first is intentional. The second is accidental.
Design Principles for Intentional Friction
Based on what's working in emerging market fintech, here's how to design friction that grows:
Principle 1: Make the Purpose Visible
When you add friction, explain why immediately. Not in a help center. Right there.
"We require facial recognition to prevent fraud." "This confirmation prevents accidental transfers." "These payment methods serve different needs—choose what works for you."
Users accept friction when purpose is clear.
Principle 2: Make Progress Visible
Friction is less painful when you see progress.
"Step 2 of 4" is better than "Fill out this form." A progress bar is better than appearing steps. Visual feedback that shows friction is moving you somewhere is better than friction that feels stuck.
Principle 3: Make Friction Proportional to Risk
Verify high-stakes actions. Don't verify trivial actions.
Large transfers should have friction. Changing your name should have friction. But viewing your balance shouldn't.
When friction is proportional to importance, users see it as smart design, not annoying design.
Principle 4: Make Friction Breakable
Sometimes users need to skip friction. Power users especially.
But don't make it easy. Make it visible that you're taking a risk. Make the user confirm they understand they're skipping verification.
This enables both easy usage for trusted users and safety for first-time users.
Principle 5: Measure Friction Correctly
Don't measure friction by onboarding speed. Measure by downstream retention and value.
Friction that slows onboarding is only bad if it increases churn. If it improves retention, it's good friction.
Measure:
What % of users complete onboarding?
Of those who complete, what's their retention?
Of those who stay, what's their lifetime value?
If friction increases completion rate and retention, it's working.
The Calculation Nobody Does
Most companies compare frictionless vs. friction by looking at conversion rate.
Frictionless: 50% onboarding completion. Friction: 30% onboarding completion.
Frictionless wins. So companies choose frictionless.
But this ignores the downstream math.
Frictionless users: 30% monthly retention, $100 lifetime value. Friction users: 70% monthly retention, $500 lifetime value.
Now do the total lifetime value calculation:
Frictionless approach: 1000 users acquired → 500 complete onboarding → 50 remain after year 1 → $5,000 lifetime value. Friction approach: 1000 users acquired → 300 complete onboarding → 210 remain after year 1 → $105,000 lifetime value.
Friction grows 21x better over time.
But frictionless won on the metric companies measure (conversion), so companies choose frictionless.
This is the mistake most companies make: they measure what's easy to measure (acquisition) instead of what matters (lifetime value).
The Time Horizon Problem
Friction creates longer-term growth. Frictionless creates short-term growth.
Companies funded on quarterly results optimize for frictionless (shows immediate growth). Companies funded on long-term metrics optimize for friction (shows compounding growth).
This explains why startup fintech products are often frictionless (need to show growth fast) while mature fintech products are more friction-ful (can optimize for retention).
It also explains why emerging market products are often more friction-ful—they can't afford the growth metric game. They have to optimize for actual economics.
Friction Works Better in Collectivist Contexts
Friction requires deliberation. Deliberation requires time. Time is more available in cultures that aren't optimized for individual speed.
In collectivist cultures, decision-making is deliberative. You discuss with family, friends, community before deciding. Friction that requires thought aligns with cultural values.
In individualistic cultures, decision-making is fast. You decide and move. Friction that requires thought violates cultural values.
This explains why friction-designed products work well in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana—where cultural norms support deliberative decision-making.
It also explains why frictionless works well in the US—where cultural norms value speed and individual choice.
Neither is wrong. They're culturally appropriate.
But the insight is this: for markets where cultural norms are collectivist and deliberative, friction isn't just acceptable—it's expected. And it creates growth.
Why Trust Requires Friction
In low-trust contexts (emerging markets with high fraud), friction is how you signal trustworthiness.
In high-trust contexts (developed markets with regulation and insurance), friction isn't necessary for trust.
This explains why OPay and PalmPay's friction works—users expect friction from institutions they don't trust yet. Friction signals "we take this seriously."
In the US, users assume trust and resent friction. In Nigeria, users assume risk and appreciate friction that signals verification
Conclusion
I started this essay saying frictionless is a luxury good.
That's true. It's a luxury that exists only in contexts where trust is high, infrastructure is reliable, and users already understand what they're entering.
For everyone else—the majority of the world—friction is the growth mechanism.
The frictionless movement was a brilliant solution to a specific problem (fast interactions in high-trust contexts). But we mistook the solution for universal truth.
Friction-designed products don't optimize for how many people use them initially. They optimize for how much value those people create over time. They're not prettier. They're not faster. But they're more sustainable, more trusted, more valuable.
In fintech, in emerging markets, in cultures where deliberation is valued, friction-designed products are winning.
The question isn't whether frictionless is better. The question is: what kind of growth do you want?
Growth in acquisition? Choose frictionless. Growth in retention? Choose friction. Growth in lifetime value? Choose friction. Growth in sustainability? Choose friction.
Most companies are optimizing for the wrong growth. They're choosing speed when they should be choosing depth. They're choosing acquisition when they should be choosing retention.
The products that will dominate emerging markets in the next decade won't be the frictionless ones copied from Silicon Valley. They'll be designed for their context, with intentional friction that builds trust, understanding, and attachment.
And they'll grow differently. Slower initially, but deeper and more sustainable.
That's not a compromise. That's the actual growth secret.
References
Sheahan, J., et al. (2024). "Designing with Friction: Inverting Notions of Seamless Technology" - NordiCHI 2024 Conference
Mejto, T., Hale, S., & Söderström, U. (2019). "Design Friction" - 31st European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics
Academic research on Slow Design, 2019-2025
Literature review on friction as method for reflection in design interventions, 2024-2025
Critical Playground (2025) - "The Quiet Rise of Slow Tech"
Agustin Sanchez (May 2025) - "Friction in design isn't a flaw. It's a feature" - Medium
Kahneman, D. (2011) - "Thinking, Fast and Slow"
Tsing, A. L. (2011) - "Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection"
Self-Determination Theory research on motivation in HCI
Fairphone and modular design sustainability research
Fintech case studies: M-Pesa, OPay, PalmPay (2024-2025)
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