When I traverse the internet, there is so much information available that it is overwhelming. Numerous ads, countless videos, basically everything lives on the Internet. It takes so much effort to try to understand and read everything. For example, when I'm trying to look up a simple recipe on cooking food, say pancakes, there's always numerous images, ads, links and references to other, sometimes relevant, sometimes not, things, and a BUNCH of text where the writer of the recipe gives some unnecessary background or detail about their relationship with the dish. Like, no Jolene, I don't want to know that you made this dish when your husband cheated on you while you were riding a horse with your third niece in West Virginia. It's ridiculous. So much unnecessary information, but at the same time, so much monetization in the form of ads everywhere. This is friction that I have experienced online, and I hate it. Friction even sounds dangerous, like it would hurt. That's because friction signals conflict and grinding, discomfort and pain, or at least a burn depending on the situation. Flow, even though it is the opposite theoretically, is more of a mixed bag, even though it sounds very natural and soothing and organic, like a flow of a peaceful waterfall. Whenever I'm on YouTube to watch videos for entertainment, I often feel empty but distracted since I am entertained by the cat videos, music videos, conspiracy theories videos, everything. It's a dangerous ride to go on, though, because Autoplay can lead you down a dark rabbit hole as it had done for me many times. Like seriously, it's great that I get Autoplay when I'm rediscovering music from my childhood and the YouTube algorithm leads me to more wonderful tracks that were lost deep within my memory, which I love, if I can't iterate that enough. However, I hate when I get too deep into a rabbit hole that it just becomes unhealthy. One time, I was looking at a video trying to understand Euler's formula but then I ended up watching videos of Meghan Markle and the British Monarchy problems. It was an interesting adventure but not one that was healthy. I have realized that flow, while good at times, should be moderated, much like alcohol or Cinnamon Toast Crunch (without the shrimp tails of course).
If I were an artist implementing flow, I would implement a clear visual hierarchy so there is an order of importance, signaling to the viewer that there exists a path which they can follow to understand and digest the information. I would want to do this if I was telling a storyline or selling a product so people don't feel overwhelmed but still feel attracted to my product. If I was implementing friction, I would do something similar but instead violate the principles of a visual hierarchy. I could create clash and tension with similar sized elements that take up the entire viewspace, use striking colors that are similar to each other for different elements to confuse the reader, or even positioning, overlaying elements on top of one another to make it unclear which is on top.