Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#1

Post by aburan28 » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 1:36 PM UTC

Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll
arstechnica.com

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#2

Post by sp332 » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 1:53 PM UTC

Not just the web either. This morning Cortana turned green and said "Oh hey!" in my taskbar. I clicked it and it gave me the regular interface - there was no alert or anything, they just wanted to boost their Cortana interaction numbers for the day. That's wasting my time and making it less likely that I will pay attention if there is an actual alert later.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#3

Post by EGreg » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 1:56 PM UTC

The site itself has a dark css theme. Made reading about "dark patterns" that much scarier. It's actually an interesting phenomenon -- how the experience is changed by the site you read it on.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#4

Post by Dzugaru » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:05 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #2

Not just the web either. This morning Cortana turned green and said "Oh hey!" in my taskbar. I clicked it and it gave me the regular interface - there was no alert or anything, they just wanted to boost their Cortana interaction numbers for the day. That's wasting my time and making it less likely that I will pay attention if there is an actual alert later.

She was just trying to be friendly...

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#5

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:05 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#6

Post by sp332 » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:08 PM UTC

Dzugaru wrote: post #4

sp332 wrote: post #2

Not just the web either. This morning Cortana turned green and said "Oh hey!" in my taskbar. I clicked it and it gave me the regular interface - there was no alert or anything, they just wanted to boost their Cortana interaction numbers for the day. That's wasting my time and making it less likely that I will pay attention if there is an actual alert later.

She was just trying to be friendly...

Yeah maybe it's an uncanny valley thing. But if it's going to start a conversation it should be prepared to carry one. And if it's going to demand my attention with a blinky green light, it should have something to say.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#7

Post by nommm-nommm » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:12 PM UTC

Those extra fees at the very end infuriate me the most - it makes comparison shopping impossible. Thats including not giving me a shipping estimate until after I enter my shipping address and payment info. I want to know what I am going to pay before entering my payment details!! Hotel "resort fees" and cable or Internet subscriptions are the worst offenders, I honestly can't believe either is legal.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#8

Post by JTon » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:14 PM UTC

I'm happy to see mainstream technews bringing this topic to a wider audience. As I'm sure most HN regulars are aware, we've had many high ranking posts on this topic

For those wanting to go right to the source: http://darkpatterns.org/

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#9

Post by LeonM » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:16 PM UTC

What about those 'free' WiFi access points that require you to login with Facebook for 'prevention of abuse', and then abuse your Facebook account by posting you were there.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#10

Post by mknocker » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

Some of these cases are not only dark patterns, they constitute was it legally known as fraud. If you deceive someone in order to gain a financial advantage, it is fraud. The problem is that going against those gigantic companies is very difficult.