Cognitive Friction Definition

Cognitive Friction was developed by Sweller in 1988 and since then has been perceived as a moment when users stop to integrate with your content and start thinking about it more deeply. Sounds a bit difficult? Well, to put it simply, cognitive friction is something that prevents users from further steps, for example it may lead to abandoned cart.

To identify cognitive friction you have to go an extra mile for your users and implement various methodologies examining your UX and UI elements. As for the example of cognitive friction we can lead a situation where user journey for a purchase takes a lot of steps and customers feel uncomfortable, thinking if it’s worth it to spend their time purchasing on your website.