Viscosity in Design: Friction vs Habit
Henryk Klawe
Most of us wake up inside someone else’s service journey: we check messages, scroll a feed, approve a payment, follow a recommendation. None of this, feels “designed to trap us”. But it is.
See everyday user experience patterns (scroll, swipe, like, infinite feed) as habits in the making, not just “nice flows”.
Learn a simple way to map where a service should be smooth (low friction) and where it should deliberately slow the user down (high friction) – for reflection, safety or consent.
Understand “stickiness” as a political choice: who gets to design the habits, who profits from constant engagement, and who carries the cost (time, attention, anxiety).
Get practical examples of “care patterns” (good stickiness: loyalty, learning, long-term trust) versus “dark patterns” (addiction, nudge traps, dead ends).
The main message is simple: stickiness is not only about conversion and retention. It is about meaning, power and responsibility in the everyday semiotics of digital services.
Henryk Klawe
My name’s Henryk. I am a father of three kids. We live in Warsaw with our dog Bazyl. In my free time, I ride my bike in the woods and canoe on the wild parts of the Vistula River. I stopped writing my PhD when I was 30 and still regret it. My aim was to build a new theory of communication. Today, I focus on leading Together (tgth.pl), a design studio that helps companies grow through tech.