Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

games.productartistry.com

11–20 of 68 posts

Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

#11
post #8

I wish to opt out of receiving exclusive promotional offers and updates about products I might be interested in. What this means: When checked: They will send you marketing emails. Uncheck to stop promotional emails. How it tricks you: They use 'opt out' and 'wish' to create a double negative - saying no to opting out means saying yes to emails Fun stuff! But I'm really unclear about this particular checkbox on lesso…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

#12
post #8

I wish to opt out of receiving exclusive promotional offers and updates about products I might be interested in. What this means: When checked: They will send you marketing emails. Uncheck to stop promotional emails. How it tricks you: They use 'opt out' and 'wish' to create a double negative - saying no to opting out means saying yes to emails Fun stuff! But I'm really unclear about this particular checkbox on lesso…

It would seem to me that "I wish to opt out" doesn't make it clear whether you actually opt out or not, simply that it would be your desire. So checking or not checking wouldn't make any difference, as neither way is answering the actual question of opting out.

Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

#13
post #8

I wish to opt out of receiving exclusive promotional offers and updates about products I might be interested in. What this means: When checked: They will send you marketing emails. Uncheck to stop promotional emails. How it tricks you: They use 'opt out' and 'wish' to create a double negative - saying no to opting out means saying yes to emails Fun stuff! But I'm really unclear about this particular checkbox on lesso…

The double negative is incorrect, but perhaps the negative "opt out" is being a bit obfuscated by the "wish".

It's been common for these types of questions to say something like "I wish to receive exclusive offers..."

So this phrasing is a little bit tricky in that if someone doesn't read it carefully they will think checking the box is saying yes to marketing spam, when in reality it's the opposite.

Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

#14
post #7

Nice game! Seems like someone already gave the feedback about the lack of time to read the explanation before the game progressed automatically. BTW something on the game is making my CPU go 100%. I'm on Firefox, Linux and in the JS console I can see "Unexpected value translate(52.460687992082626%, 52.24894125700998%) scale(1.0398801892701597) parsing transform attribute." warning being printed nonstop.

Thanks for helping identify my first ever hotfix! There was bound to be an issue given this is my first real solo web development project - the background animation was causing the CPU issue as I immediately suspected. I've just pushed a fix that resolves this, along with extending the completion timer to 5 seconds for better readability. This timer adjustment is a temporary solution until I can implement a more configurable system.

Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

#15
post #8

I wish to opt out of receiving exclusive promotional offers and updates about products I might be interested in. What this means: When checked: They will send you marketing emails. Uncheck to stop promotional emails. How it tricks you: They use 'opt out' and 'wish' to create a double negative - saying no to opting out means saying yes to emails Fun stuff! But I'm really unclear about this particular checkbox on lesso…

The worst offender I've seen in this regard was some GUI program on Windows, and it had this checkbox in its installation process with some wording like this:

"Please do not uncheck if you do not wish to not install XXX (bundled bloatware)"

I just assumed that the default state must be installing the bloatware, and changed it, and fortunately I was right.

Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

#16
post #8

I wish to opt out of receiving exclusive promotional offers and updates about products I might be interested in. What this means: When checked: They will send you marketing emails. Uncheck to stop promotional emails. How it tricks you: They use 'opt out' and 'wish' to create a double negative - saying no to opting out means saying yes to emails Fun stuff! But I'm really unclear about this particular checkbox on lesso…

Yes, I came here to say that. "Wish" definitely does not create a negative, and ticking the box is the correct thing to do.

Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

#17
post #5

I liked the idea! However I do have a few pieces of feedback 1. Switching between mobile and desktop modes resets the progress 2. When I complete a lesson, an explanation is given but I'm given just a few seconds to read it, and then the game forcefully continues to the next lesson. Sometimes I could miss the explanation.

Thanks so much for the feedback—it’s super helpful! Persisting progress between mobile and desktop is definitely on my roadmap. As for the lesson timer, I’ve just updated it to 5 seconds as a quick fix while I work on a better long-term solution for completing lessons. Appreciate you pointing that out!

Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

#18
post #5

I liked the idea! However I do have a few pieces of feedback 1. Switching between mobile and desktop modes resets the progress 2. When I complete a lesson, an explanation is given but I'm given just a few seconds to read it, and then the game forcefully continues to the next lesson. Sometimes I could miss the explanation.

I think you have successfully discovered meta-education on dark patterns.

Haha! "You were supposed to stop the dark patterns, not join them."

Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design

#19
It's a nice game but I have some feedback:

The first two levels want you to click the non-misleading option and then the third requires you to click the misleading option, which then has a "Report as Deceptive Marketing" button. This feels counterproductive if you're trying to teach people to not fall for dark patterns, you've just rewarded them for falling for it and punished anyone who didn't!. Then, a later level has the opposite, you see (almost) the same dialog from level 3, but you need to click the other option.

The instructions for Level 3 do say you're supposed to "find the hidden truth", but that's not necessarily what clicking the "Activate Premium Features" button would do in real life. I think it would work better if it stuck to one side of things, probably having players always try to avoid getting misled. At the end it says one of the outcomes should be "Improved muscle memory", so the goal should probably be no clicking on bad things.

This also makes it confusing what it's supposed to be simulating to me. I've never had a site offer to let me report their own promotions as deceptive (or as a later level has, "Report Bait and Switch Tactic" when you go to check out).

The "Trick Questions" level had only pre-checked checkboxes that you should uncheck (and the button tells you to uncheck all of them, there's no thought required here), I think it would work better if some needed to remain checked. It ties in to the same "muscle memory" issue, unchecking isn't guaranteed to be a good action. Similarly, it might make sense to have Basket Sneaking include a coupon code or something that you shouldn't remove from your cart, so players learn to read closely.

Post reply on HN