TL;DR: add friction to things when they're harmful to users, and don't just duplicate harmful designs in OSS.
Friction is a very well-understood tool in the designers toolkit. The key question is whether its added in places that are beneficial to the user.
Think of a 2x2 of user benefit x company benefit.
1. Benefits both user & company ex: GitHub's 'Danger Zone'
2. Benefits company but not user ex: difficult unsubscribe flows
3. Benefits user but not company ex: 'ethical' designs like stopping addictive behavior
4. Benefits neither: this is just bad design
The key is to create a movement to get people to do more of 3 and less of 2, and that's well underway with stuff like what Center for Humane Technology is doing. I don't think we should call that field 'anti-design' though. Instead, much like many engineering fields that bake in professional ethics into their work, we should frame it exactly opposite: the pinnacle of good design.
Great analysis, I can understand where "anti-design" is coming from, but I agree with you we shouldn't use this term, something like ethical-design becoming the pinnacle would be much better. But I don't think it will catch up soon, unless there is more awareness, similarly to what happen in the food industry with sugar.
Friction is a very well-understood tool in the designers toolkit. The key question is whether its added in places that are beneficial to the user.
Think of a 2x2 of user benefit x company benefit.
1. Benefits both user & company ex: GitHub's 'Danger Zone'
2. Benefits company but not user ex: difficult unsubscribe flows
3. Benefits user but not company ex: 'ethical' designs like stopping addictive behavior
4. Benefits neither: this is just bad design
The key is to create a movement to get people to do more of 3 and less of 2, and that's well underway with stuff like what Center for Humane Technology is doing. I don't think we should call that field 'anti-design' though. Instead, much like many engineering fields that bake in professional ethics into their work, we should frame it exactly opposite: the pinnacle of good design.