INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS: you're fighting against fear

Fear of being a social outcast, fear of something not working...fear of uncertainty. That's what we're fighting against every day.

When Uber launched, their loading screen showed little car icons driving around a map. This solved two barriers: social proof (everyone's doing this) and availability anxiety (I won't be stranded). People don't fear the technology, they fear the uncertainty around it.

Those car icons didn't make the app faster. They just made the three seconds of doubt before clicking "confirm" disappear.

Think about every interaction in your product. What is the user actually afraid of? Not what's confusing, what are they scared MIGHT happen? Fear doesn't show up in research or testing metrics. It shows up as hesitation and abandonment. Your job isn't to make the perfect product. It's to figure out what tiny signal makes the fear smaller than the desire.