Frictionless Isn’t the Point

Why Higher Ed Should Design for Humane Friction, Not Seamless Student Lives

There are terms of art, and there are trendy terms of over use. Sustainable, agile, disruption, and ecosystem have all found their ways into the over use category. They started in the tech world, and oozed into our daily nomenclature. When #HigherEd adopts terminology that originates outside of our construct, we risk losing some of our own agency as a field. Indeed, while we can deploy the terminology within our unique environment, we may easily lose control of how they are understood and interpreted.

It is for this reason that I am actually concerned about the increase of and embrace of the term, “frictionless”, and it’s potential incorporation into campus jargon and execution of student services.

Within tech a “frictionless” experience means designing a process so smooth that users barely notice it happening at all. A frictionless journey strips out extra steps, waiting, and confusion so that you can move from wanting something to getting it with minimal effort; Think of one-click purchasing, auto-filled forms, or apps that quietly/spookily handle everything in the background. In student services, that can look like chatbots that answer questions instantly, portals that surface exactly the right task at the right time, or systems that nudge you through enrollment without ever needing to talk to a person.