Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - August 30, 2026

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The Feed & The Thread - August 30, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  Good UX design might actually be too smooth. Wait, friction is
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  usually the enemy. But intentional roadblocks can help
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  users reclaim agency, and we're testing that theory today.
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  Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
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  Chicago Camps. Leadership By Design is on Thursday and
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  Friday, September 17 and 18 and tickets are available now! And
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  while you're at it, get caught up on UX fundamentals with five
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  minute UX at five em UX dot com. The Feed & The Thread is
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  available online at feed and thread dot com to submit your
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  feeds, or download our app for all the feeds and threads
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  delivered right to your pocket.
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  We chase frictionless experiences, yet seamless design
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  often erodes user agency and ignores the human need for
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  pause. L. Jeffrey Zeldman returns to music in "Mix",
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  sharing how he taught himself mixing to collaborate remotely
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  with Robert Gray. This project marks the start of a new album
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  forty years after his first, proving that lifelong learning
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  sustains creative health. It reminds us that stepping back
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  from the screen to engage with other disciplines can reignite
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  the inspiration we lose in routine work. Daniel Schwarz
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  explores the Document Picture- in-Picture API in "Creating Web
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  Widgets Using the Document Picture-in-Picture API", showing
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  how developers can render HTML widgets in persistent windows.
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  This allows chat tools or stock tickers to float across tabs,
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  but it strips away CSS context, forcing designers to rebuild
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  styling from scratch. It's a powerful feature that challenges
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  our assumption that web content must live strictly within the
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  browser frame. Elizabeth F. Churchill and Mikael Wiberg
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  argue in "Friction by Design: Reclaiming Human Agency" that
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  intentional friction can reclaim human agency in an age of
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  algorithmic flows. They suggest that seamless interfaces often
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  lead to mindless consumption, while deliberate pauses
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  encourage users to reflect on their choices. This reframes
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  friction not as a bug to eliminate, but as a design tool
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  that respects user autonomy. Other reads today from ACM
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  Interactions on system agency, sustainable interaction
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  uncertainty, and resisting AI disembodiment.
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  Designers are wrestling with the gap between smooth interfaces
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  and human control today. We chase frictionless experiences,
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  yet that seamlessness often erodes user agency and ignores
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  our need for pause. Over on r/hci, a designer with two years
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  of experience is weighing a master's degree in Germany
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  against staying in the workforce. The question isn't
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  just about credentials. It's about whether formal education
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  adds depth that practice alone can't. We often assume
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  experience is the only teacher, but structured study forces us
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  to pause and reflect on theory. That reflection might be the
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  very friction we need to grow. In r/uxresearch, someone is
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  asking how to recruit participants for studies in
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  highly regulated industries like banking. Standard platforms
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  often fail here because of privacy constraints. This
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  reveals a blind spot in our tooling. We build seamless
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  recruitment flows for casual apps, but we lack the
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  infrastructure for complex, sensitive contexts. Fixing this
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  requires us to slow down and design for compliance, not just
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  convenience. Over on r/design, a student is looking for
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  university recommendations for art direction. It's a basic
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  question, but it highlights how we define creative entry points.
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  We often prioritize technical skills over artistic vision.
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  Yet, art direction shapes how we perceive design. Choosing the
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  right academic path matters because it grounds our intuition
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  in history and theory. In r/design, a poster asks whether
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  clients should react emotionally or critically to work. Emotional
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  reactions tell us if the concept resonates. Critical feedback
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  identifies functional issues. Both are necessary. We need the
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  heart to connect and the head to refine. Ignoring either side
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  creates imbalanced products that feel either cold or chaotic.
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  Over on r/web_design, a designer is dealing with a client who
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  insists on a terrible logo. The tension is between professional
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  integrity and getting paid. We want to fix bad design, but we
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  also need to survive. Sometimes, the friction of a bad logo is a
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  cost we absorb to keep the project moving. Today's
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  discussions show that friction isn't always the enemy. It's
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  often the space where agency lives.
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  Chicago Camps is hosting Leadership By Design on Thursday
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  & Friday, September 17 & 18. It's an online event, so you can
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  join from anywhere in the world! Tickets are free, thanks to the
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  generosity of the community! If it's within your budget, you can
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  purchase a general admission ticket for only twenty six
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  dollars - with limited early bird tickets at only fifteen
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  dollars. Get tickets now at Chicago Camps dot org.
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  The argument that friction is a design tool rather than a bug
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  changes how we view interface efficiency. Churchill and Wiberg
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  suggest that seamless flows encourage mindless consumption,
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  which feels counterintuitive when our industry metrics still
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  reward speed and zero drop-off. It feels counterintuitive
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  because we've optimized for engagement at the cost of
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  agency. In banking, for example, we can't just let users click
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  through a high-risk transfer without a pause. That pause
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  isn't bad UX. It's a safeguard. The community is realizing that
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  removing all friction removes the user's ability to consent
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  meaningfully. But there's a risk in romanticizing friction.
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  If we start inserting pauses everywhere, we might just be
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  creating barriers that protect the platform from liability
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  rather than protecting the user from regret. The Document
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  Picture-in-Picture API shows us that technical constraints strip
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  away context. Friction by design risks doing the same thing by
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  stripping away momentum. Momentum isn't the goal. Clarity
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  is. When a designer in r/hci asks whether to pursue a
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  master's degree, they aren't looking for more speed. They're
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  looking for depth. Formal study forces reflection. That
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  reflection is a form of intentional friction against the
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  rush of daily work. We need that pause to distinguish between
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  what's fast and what's right. So the tension isn't between
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  smooth and rough. It's between automatic and intentional. If we
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  treat friction as a default state, we fail. But if we treat
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  it as a deliberate choice to highlight a decision point, we
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  restore agency. The system doesn't need to be harder to
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  use. It needs to be harder to ignore. Exactly. The next step
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  isn't slowing down the interface. It's slowing down the
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  assumption that speed equals value. We have to design for the
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  moment of choice, not the moment of completion. When the
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  interface stops moving the user forward, the user finally has a
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  chance to move themselves. And that's the only place where real
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  agency lives.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!