Design for friction. An inquiry to position friction as a method for reflection in design interventions

The article proposes a literature review on how design could be a viable way to make users reflect when using design products in the larger context of data production through digital technologies. Design practitioners consider quickness, ease of use, and smoothness as hallmarks of good design that produces digital interfaces that do not disclose what is happening behind the surface, creating opaque situations in which users are not necessarily aware of the consequences of their actions. To reframe this approach to design, we explore the concept of “friction” as a lens to analyze existing definitions of this and related concepts in design and as a metaphorical design approach emerging from the literature. 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. Using Scopus as a proxy to inquire about the defined term, a corpus of relevant publications is analyzed to gather existing design approaches along with occurring instances of the word “friction” and how it has been used previously. To conclude, we introduce the concepts of “diegetic frictions” and “extra-diegetic frictions” as a possible taxonomy of design interventions that embody the initial intention outlined in the article.