The other day, I was waiting at a dealership for my car to get inspected, and I was thirsty. I walked over to a vending machine and was met with a completely new experience.
Instead of selecting a drink and paying at a traditional vending machine, I was presented with a glass-door refrigerator. I unlocked it with my debit card, opened the door, and grabbed a Coke Zero. When I closed the door, the machine used AI to detect what I had selected and automatically charged my card.
A QR code then appeared on the screen, offering to send me a receipt.
I’m a details person, so of course I requested the receipt.
Sure enough, it was 100% accurate. I had selected one bottle of Coke Zero, and I was charged for one bottle of Coke Zero. All good, right?
[Side note: I happen to like Coke Zero. They did not pay me to endorse them in this blog post. That said, I’m not stupid. If they want to retroactively pay for this product placement, I’m game.]
Sure.
But what would have happened if it had been wrong? What if I had grabbed two drinks and the system only detected one? What if it charged me for something I didn’t take? And what if I hadn’t opted to have the receipt sent to me?
If I’m being honest, the whole thing felt a little weird. Like being a passenger in a driverless car.
The UX of Autonomous Transactions
That moment illustrates a larger challenge in modern user experience design: the tension between removing friction and preserving user confidence.
In User Experience (UX), friction is often treated as the enemy. The goal is to reduce the time, effort, and cognitive load required to accomplish a task. Fewer clicks. Shorter forms. Faster transactions. Less waiting.
And often, that’s exactly what users want.
Just as E-ZPass makes paying a toll nearly invisible, automated transactions can make everyday tasks faster and easier. The vending machine eliminated nearly every traditional step between selecting a drink and completing the purchase.
By traditional measures of usability, that’s a success.
But removing friction can also remove something else: feedback.
When a transaction happens automatically, users may not see what happened, why it happened, or whether it happened correctly. The experience becomes faster, but also more unclear.
That’s where the idea of useful friction comes into play.
When Friction Serves a Purpose
Useful friction positively impacts the overall user experience because it slows the user down at precise micro-moments to deliver:
- Confirmation & Feedback: Show people exactly what happened after they take an action—especially important when the system is doing something invisible (e.g., my vending machine charging my card without showing me what it picked up).
- Error Prevention: Add a quick pause before permanent actions, or warn people when something seems wrong (e.g., flagging a forgotten email attachment).
- Consent & Security: For important money or personal information, require people to actively say “yes” instead of just letting things happen automatically.
- System Reassurance: When automation is running in the background, let people know it’s working and what the results were. A progress bar or confirmation screen helps people feel in control.
- User Education: Make people aware of what their choices actually mean so they use features responsibly.
- Credibility Building: Counterintuitively, people trust processes more when they take a reasonable amount of time. Something that happens too fast can feel unreliable — it doesn’t feel like the system actually did anything.
The Goal Isn’t Zero Friction
Good UX isn’t about making every interaction as fast as possible. It’s about making the right interactions feel effortless while deliberately slowing users down when doing so protects their intent, prevents errors, and/or builds trust.
Before removing a step to make an experience faster, ask: Is this friction getting in the user’s way, or is it giving them confidence to complete a task?
Sometimes, the best user experience isn’t the one with the fewest steps. It’s the one that puts friction exactly where it matters.
About Bruce Cronlund
With his skill in envisioning how a design will both work for the end-user and interact with the backend, Bruce oversees application architecture and database design. He’s a key Content Management System (CMS) consultant, specializing in CMS selection, build-out, and training.
Posted on September 4, 2026 by Bruce Cronlund in Commentary
The other day, I was waiting at a dealership for my car to get inspected, and I was thirsty. I walked over to a vending machine and was met with a completely new experience.
Instead of selecting a drink and paying at a traditional vending machine, I was presented with a glass-door refrigerator. I unlocked it with my debit card, opened the door, and grabbed a Coke Zero. When I closed the door, the machine used AI to detect what I had selected and automatically charged my card.
A QR code then appeared on the screen, offering to send me a receipt.
I’m a details person, so of course I requested the receipt.
Sure enough, it was 100% accurate. I had selected one bottle of Coke Zero, and I was charged for one bottle of Coke Zero. All good, right?
[Side note: I happen to like Coke Zero. They did not pay me to endorse them in this blog post. That said, I’m not stupid. If they want to retroactively pay for this product placement, I’m game.]
Sure.
But what would have happened if it had been wrong? What if I had grabbed two drinks and the system only detected one? What if it charged me for something I didn’t take? And what if I hadn’t opted to have the receipt sent to me?
If I’m being honest, the whole thing felt a little weird. Like being a passenger in a driverless car.
The UX of Autonomous Transactions
That moment illustrates a larger challenge in modern user experience design: the tension between removing friction and preserving user confidence.
In User Experience (UX), friction is often treated as the enemy. The goal is to reduce the time, effort, and cognitive load required to accomplish a task. Fewer clicks. Shorter forms. Faster transactions. Less waiting.
And often, that’s exactly what users want.
Just as E-ZPass makes paying a toll nearly invisible, automated transactions can make everyday tasks faster and easier. The vending machine eliminated nearly every traditional step between selecting a drink and completing the purchase.
By traditional measures of usability, that’s a success.
But removing friction can also remove something else: feedback.
When a transaction happens automatically, users may not see what happened, why it happened, or whether it happened correctly. The experience becomes faster, but also more unclear.
That’s where the idea of useful friction comes into play.
When Friction Serves a Purpose
Useful friction positively impacts the overall user experience because it slows the user down at precise micro-moments to deliver:
The Goal Isn’t Zero Friction
Good UX isn’t about making every interaction as fast as possible. It’s about making the right interactions feel effortless while deliberately slowing users down when doing so protects their intent, prevents errors, and/or builds trust.
Before removing a step to make an experience faster, ask: Is this friction getting in the user’s way, or is it giving them confidence to complete a task?
Sometimes, the best user experience isn’t the one with the fewest steps. It’s the one that puts friction exactly where it matters.
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About Bruce Cronlund
With his skill in envisioning how a design will both work for the end-user and interact with the backend, Bruce oversees application architecture and database design. He’s a key Content Management System (CMS) consultant, specializing in CMS selection, build-out, and training.