Clicks & Splinters

Have you gotten a splinter lately?

I get one or two a month. It’s wild how something so small can derail your focus. Suddenly, you’re not thinking about the task at hand—you’re consumed by that tiny piece of wood.

That got me thinking about clicks. Not the good kind. The kind that fill up enterprise software.

Each unnecessary click is like a splinter. It might seem small, but it adds friction. It distracts from the work. It signals either overcomplication, indifference to the user’s time, or a product built around features—not flow.

Most users don’t report excessive clicking in feedback forms—but they do gripe to each other. The response from product teams is often a shrug: “That’s just how it works,” or worse, “That’s not a big deal.”

But it is a big deal.

Just like a splinter, excessive clicking creates resistance. It nudges the user away from the task, the tool, and ultimately the product. The more you click, the less you want to use the software.

One reason AI is so exciting? It reduces the number of things we have to click. It’s a layer of abstraction over manual inputs—just tell it what you need, and it handles the in-between.

At ModernPM, we run click audits. We obsess over microseconds. Because we believe good software respects your time and attention. It helps youdo the work—not wrestle with it.Yes, some clicks are inevitable.

Just like splinters if you’re doing real yard work. But great design is like wearing gloves—it prevents the pain before it starts.