Design X Friction

There is this idea of "simplicity" in design and then there is "frictionless" design - a novel concept inspired by Peter of Adaptive Path. For a design to be considered "genius" does not come easy; plenty of work must be taken into account while avoiding what many companies out there today often do instead; overloading touchpoints with biased remarkability and shareability in the hope that something catches on and creates a brand evangelist. This is both confusing and annoying. 

A great design is to create a frictionless experience, with context-aware friction points embedded every so often to create that, "Aha!" moment that everyone knows and love. This also suggests that a frictionless design may be very complex in nature - and that's fine. Take the dSLR camera: it's complex with hundreds of features, but should be easy enough to pull out and snap a photo in a matter of seconds.

All that said, I believe the key to perfected "frictionless" design may inevitably be composed of a brilliantly orchestrated implementation of information architecture, showcase aesthetic design, and be highly complex in nature without the user ever knowing it.