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UX designers generally strive to make products easier to use, but there are circumstances in which adding friction improves product security. For instance, two-factor authentication makes login slower but can reduce identity theft. There are also occasions when implementing friction simply makes users feel safe: Animated progress bars don’t protect personal data but may meet a user’s expectations about the higher degree of processing power required in a secure environment.

As a product design manager for Freja, a digital security company under contract with the Swedish government, I routinely look for ways to harmonize usability with user safety. Sometimes that means incorporating features that users perceive to be secure. For example, most digital products can instantaneously compute complex data, but research shows that artificial loading times give users a sense that an advanced system is hard at work on their behalf. On the other hand, if designers are overly reliant on features that only appear to bolster security (known as security theater), they may lead users