The rule
Count the steps between intent and outcome. Then remove some.
That sounds glib, and it is the whole discipline. Friction is not usually added by bad decisions; it is added by reasonable decisions, one at a time, by people who were not the ones repeating the task.
The path must be obvious, not secret
The worst friction is not length, it is sequence you have to know. Press this button, then that one, then this other one, in that order, or it does not work. Nothing on the screen says so. Somebody learned it once and now trains everyone else.
This is the Secret sequence failure. The cure is to make the sequence structural — a wizard, a stepper, a disabled next button that says what is missing — so the screen teaches the order instead of a colleague teaching it.
Ask for less up front
The strongest friction reduction available is usually not collecting the information yet. A nine-field signup that could be two fields is seven decisions charged to someone who has not yet seen any value.
The question for every field is not do we need this? but do we need this now? Most of the time the honest answer is: we need it when the thing it affects actually happens, and that is a better moment to ask, because then the question makes sense.
Where the steps hide
- Round trips to change one value. Four clicks to edit a field is three clicks and a lost context. This is what inline editing exists to remove.
- Confirmations on reversible actions. A confirm dialog is a step charged to every user to protect against a mistake a few will make. When the action is reversible, undo is cheaper and safer.
- Optional things presented as required. A form does not distinguish, so the person fills everything.
- Configuration before value. Ten settings before the first useful action, chosen by someone who cannot yet know what they want.
The tension worth naming
Friction reduction and safety pull against each other, and the resolution is not "be careful" — it is knowing which actions are reversible. Reversible plus low-stakes: act immediately, offer undo. Irreversible plus high-stakes: confirm, and make the confirmation specific rather than a generic "are you sure".
That distinction is a decision the software makes once, per action, on purpose. Where it is not made deliberately, every action ends up confirmed, which trains people to click through confirmations without reading them — and then the protection is gone anyway.