As companies dive into creating digital products and services, for customers and employees, they’ll be challenged with creating these “Frictionless” experiences. Striving to create these “just right” experiences drives understanding context that aids in creating a “Goldilocks” style experiences. Diving deep into and understanding complex user data and applying “anticipatory” design principles will enable creating these experiences.

Here are three key elements to think about when creating a frictionless experience.

1. Anticipatory Design — Deliver what users want before they want it.

The power of understanding context is the key to creating “Anticipatory” Design focused experiences. The ability to capture large sets of realtime data and predictively start serving up the best intended experience. Analyzing realtime activity data then layering on historical data across several similar individuals/experiences can start to open the window to creating an intelligent sensing experience.

“…the creation of products, services, and experiences that eliminate the needless choices from our lives and make ones on our behalf, freeing us up for the ones we really care about: Anticipatory design.” — Aaron Shapiro, HUGE.

2. Take a Context-First Strategy.

Instead of looking at it from a device usage lens take a focus on a user centered approach. Look at the full user journey to deeply understand how users interact with your product or service. Understand how they interact between devices and environments. For example Josh Clark talks about minding the gap, “Create interactions that shift not only content but BEHAVIOR AND ACTIONS between gadgets”. Capture and record those moments and identify where you can close the gaps on interactions.

“Create interactions that shift not only content but BEHAVIOR AND ACTIONS between gadgets” — Josh Clark, Big Medium

3. Avoid the digital interface.

Once you’ve identified that full customer journey it will uncover where you can start to remove these screen interfaces. Leveraging the ambient surroundings will uncover those key elements of context. There’s an abundance of digital information surrounding us today the more you take advantage of this information the less the need for a digital interface interaction.

“We start capturing all of your intent for the things you want to do,” David Marcus, Messaging Products @ Facebook

Applying these three key elements will help drive any product or service to a more frictionless experience for your customers and employees.