Today, I delivered the opening keynote at the Umedev Conference: Make me think! – Why friction might save us from ourselves. Full house, with streaming to an additional lecture hall.

Great to meet colleagues and friends from industry, and especially inspiring to see former students now contributing to shaping the future of digital products and services.

This year, I talked about how we have spent decades removing friction from digital systems to make them faster and easier to use. But when everything becomes frictionless, we also risk removing opportunities for reflection.

Good UX removes unnecessary friction.
Responsible UX sometimes introduces necessary friction.

Here are the slides from the presentation: Umedev 2026

Thanks to everyone joining my keynote!