Man, how long have you known me? I’ve seriously never given you my “it’s all about reducing friction” rant?
Image via Wikipedia
By increasing the friction and hurdles in the ecommerce experience, these sites raise the perceived value of the goods they sell. But, it’s not just any friction… if they made the shopping cart difficult to use or the navigation was broken, the perceived value of the goods would be less. It’s very intentional choices of friction that create valuable real world metaphors.
Andrew Parker referencing Gilt Group, Ideeli, Editors’ Closet.
Good point here - I’ve never thought of it before as friction, I suppose it is, the important thing I think is friction associated with the application (bad) vs friction in the buying process which results in different perceptions and exchanges of value.
