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Manipulating App Store Reviews with Dark Patterns

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Re: Manipulating App Store Reviews with Dark Patterns

#2

Post by sp332 »

If the user taps the green thumbs up icon and submits the form, they are invited to leave an App Store review. If they tap the red thumbs down icon, what happens? Nothing. They are given no easy way to post-up their negative review.

I don't think this is unethical. I don't know anyone who encourages unhappy customers to write reviews, on or off the app store.

Re: Manipulating App Store Reviews with Dark Patterns

#3

Post by studio625 »

sp332 wrote: post #2

If the user taps the green thumbs up icon and submits the form, they are invited to leave an App Store review. If they tap the red thumbs down icon, what happens? Nothing. They are given no easy way to post-up their negative review. I don't think this is unethical. I don't know anyone who encourages unhappy customers to write reviews, on or off the app store.

"If you can find a subtle way to segment your users by their sentiment towards your app, you can then ask one of those segments to write reviews and not the other, thus skewing the ratings."

It skews the ratings in your favor, deceiving future users about the actual quality of the app.

Re: Manipulating App Store Reviews with Dark Patterns

#4

Post by kgtm »

I agree with the overall premise of the article, in that these examples are in fact exploiting UI design patterns to funnel users into not being able to painlessly leave negative reviews. But i want to offer a different perspective for consideration other than "this is evil".

As a developer of apps, you provide software that tries to fulfill a specific need of some subset of users (in other words, it's not merely an uber-fart-generator). You genuinely build this app to the best of your ability and push it to the app store. Users trickle in, based on the app description and find that, for example, it lacks polish or it doesn't have feature X yet, which is relevant to the app's domain and to the user, but is not currently implemented. In other words, there is a mismatch between user expectations and the app-provided experience.

Instinctively, these users feel the urge to leave a negative rating. It's a knee-jerk reaction. As a developer, I want the user to engage me, because obviously I have an app that is not quite there yet. I want the user to tell me what they want fixed before leaving a negative review, so that i can satisfy their needs without burying the app. By funneling him into such a feedback loop, I can better my app and in turn help him fulfill his needs best.

Is this unethical, or evil? I say no. Apple outright banning these unethical -- as the author considers them -- design patterns, would also have a detrimental effect on many legitimate use cases.

Re: Manipulating App Store Reviews with Dark Patterns

#5

Post by sp332 »

studio625 wrote: post #3
sp332 wrote: post #2

If the user taps the green thumbs up icon and submits the form, they are invited to leave an App Store review. If they tap the red thumbs down icon, what happens? Nothing. They are given no easy way to post-up their negative review. I don't think this is unethical. I don't know anyone who encourages unhappy customers to write reviews, on or off the app store.

"If you can find a subtle way to segment your users by their sentiment towards your app, you can then ask one of those segments to write reviews and not the other, thus skewing the ratings." It skews the ratings in your favor, deceiving future users about the actual quality of the app.

I don't think it's more deceptive than putting favorable reviews on the back of a book, or those any ads where they get actual customers to review a product. The app store is both a promotional channel and a marketplace.

Re: Manipulating App Store Reviews with Dark Patterns

#8

Post by akg »

sp332 wrote: post #5
studio625 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you can find a subtle way to segment your users by their sentiment towards your app, you can then ask one of those segments to write reviews and not the other, thus skewing the ratings." It skews the ratings in your favor, deceiving future users about the actual quality of the app.

I don't think it's more deceptive than putting favorable reviews on the back of a book, or those any ads where they get actual customers to review a product. The app store is both a promotional channel and a marketplace.

Interesting point, however the main difference between a printed book and the app store is that the product on the app store can be constantly changing based on the user feedback. If reviews are inherently prejudiced in one direction, does that leave much incentive for developers to improve their app?

On the other hand, a private engagement directly with developers could prove to be more beneficial since it allows developers know of shortcomings/user-expectations without negatively affecting the overall ratings. This way, they can improve the app without having lingering negative comments affect the perception of their updates.

Re: Manipulating App Store Reviews with Dark Patterns

#9

Post by sp332 »

akg wrote: post #8
sp332 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's more deceptive than putting favorable reviews on the back of a book, or those any ads where they get actual customers to review a product. The app store is both a promotional channel and a marketplace.

Interesting point, however the main difference between a printed book and the app store is that the product on the app store can be constantly changing based on the user feedback. If reviews are inherently prejudiced in one direction, does that leave much incentive for developers to improve their app? On the other hand, a private engagement directly with developers could prove to be more beneficial since it allows de…

If reviews are inherently prejudiced in one direction, does that leave much incentive for developers to improve their app?

Well these aren't fake reviews that appear out of thin air. The reviews may be "biased" but they're still written by real, mostly happy, users.

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