That was really well done. Nice work!
Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
21–30 of 68 posts
Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
#22I 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.
I'd say you shouldn't tick it. By ticking it they may grant your wish to opt-out.
They send emails > you opt-out > wish fulfilled > you're welcome.
Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
#23Well done.
From a technical point of view the page scrolls a little slowly. I'm on Firefox for Android and it's usually faster than that. However for those scammy sites slowness is par for the course. It adds to the realism of the experience.
Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
#24I 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.
"I just assumed that the default state must be installing the bloatware, and changed it, and fortunately I was right."
That's how it is usually and also my way to navigate modern UI.
"No, I don't want to share all of what I do on my device with you and your 800 partners"
Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
#25Fantastic idea, the UI of the site is clean, I think the actual content itself could use some improvement.
After opening the site I had to "fail" a couple just to understand what the user goal even was. I recognized the fake/misleading UI but still wasn't sure what to do with that information.
I think you should take this exact concept, do some user studies, and come out with a V2. There's a market for this. My grandparents are getting to the age where I don't really trust them with access to their own credit cards / operating the web, I frequently come over to fix their computer and it's just extensions they've unintentionally installed. If this was iterated on & repackaged as either a educational course or a "test" to see if they are "safe on the internet", I would pay money for it.
And on the other end, it's well-proven at this point that tech literacy for the average person peaked somewhere around people born in 1985-2000. Before then, people grew up without as much access to tech. After that, people grew up in an environment where common tech problems were already solved. (A 10 yearold in 2012 wasn't dealing with corrupted disks, they were playing on an iPad). Offering this concept as a course targetted at the age range could be good.
Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
#26Cool idea, pretty good execution, but your UI is confusing.
1. There's so much happening on the screen between your app's UI and the fake UI with the dark patterns that it's confusing. IMO you should show the objective first, and then let the user click to reveal the fake UI and challenge. For example, simply show, "Challenge #1 — Find the button that actually lets you cancel the subscription." Then have a button that says, "Start Challenge." When that button is clicked, then reveal the UI.
2. Give me some context. If you just say, "Find the button that actually lets you cancel the subscription," that's not really enough. You should set the scenario. "Imagine you're subscribed to an app, but you don't want to be subscribed anymore. So you sign into the app and click the cancel button. It loads a new screen. How do proceed from here to finalize your cancelation?"
3. Don't tell me the answer in advance. Naming the first challenge "Color Confusion" tells me the answer.
4. Don't auto-advance steps. I had no idea that I auto advanced. I changed tabs, then came back, then was scrolling down looking for the next step button. Just let me manually click to the next step as a user. Preferably at the bottom, near the pattern explanation.
Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
#27It'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…
Yes, I stopped at question three because just lying is not what I consider a dark pattern. The three check boxes are not giving the site permission to do what you say they will do.
"Unlocking exclusive and premium content" doesn't mean it will always be promotional content. The exclusive content has just as much chance as being an ad as the rest of the content.
"Personalized deals just for you" is not a dark pattern. That is basically just asking if you want to see more ads. That's a light pattern,
"24/7 support" presumably means you will get some support. If they share data with folks who are not support folks, then that's just lying.
Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
#28Thank you so much for this! I think this is informative and relevant.
Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
#29The gamification of the "levels" starting with "Misdirection" doesn't really make sense to me. After the first few "levels" you've established how the game works: the player has to click on the button that opts out of the bad stuff, and gets a green box (success). Opting into the bad stuff gives a red box (fail).
But then suddenly you switch it up: the player is forced to opt into the bad stuff, so you can give a guided tour through the bad stuff. You still give red failure feedback for all of this, but you also give red failure feedback if the player opts out of the bad stuff, since you were trying to get them to see it.
Even after this point, some levels work the original way where you have to opt out of bad stuff.
Again on "Basket Sneaking", the goal is to remove items from the cart, but when removing items from the cart, you give red failure-like feedback.
On "Privacy Zuckering" the "Show details" are not anything you'd see on a real website. Here the idea that you're giving a guided tour clashes with the idea that you're showing us a mockup of a real app.
This reply was delayed by a few hours due to HN rate limiting.
Re: Show HN: Interactive game teaching dark patterns in UX design
#30I think your UI could use some work, funny enough. But I like the concept, it's just that the way the page and "game" works is not exactly clear.