Kristen Berman
Add Friction to Stop, Remove It to Go
Inspired by Kristen Berman episode
Kristen Berman's insight: Adding one step can kill a bad habit. Removing one step can build a good one.
You know how in product design you add friction to stop behavior and remove it to encourage it? Like making the unsubscribe button seventeen clicks deep while the "BUY NOW" button is basically humping your cursor?
Same thing with kids, except the product is vegetables and the competitor is floor Cheerios.
You want them to stop eating sugar? That candy jar needs to live on top of the refrigerator behind last year's Thanksgiving turkey platter. Want them to drink water? Put eight cups on the bottom shelf where they can flood your kitchen unsupervised.
The environment does the parenting so you don't have to be the bad guy. You're just the designer who "happened to make the iPad charger disappear" while leaving twelve library books on the couch.
It's honestly the laziest form of control, which is why it's perfect.
