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Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

darkpatterns.org

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Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#161
Does it count if there's no user interface? Amazon has my email address, I've been a customer since the late-nineties. They keep inventing new email lists and signing me up for them. Each time I get a new "newsletter" it says something like, "You got this message because you're subscribed to the 'Tablet News' newsletter." I click the unsubscribe link to remove myself from it. Along with the unsubscribe link there's a link to my subscriptions. When I go there, it only shows the ones I want (the specific authors I'm following). I want to unsubscribe not only from this latest list you just signed me up for, but also from all future lists you may want to sign me up for. I really don't want to get any unsolicited marketing email from you. Really. I don't want it. Please let me out.

Also stop letting marketplace sellers email me begging for feedback after every marketplace item I accidentally order. I try my best to not order marketplace seller items anymore but when I accidentally do (or buy a gift for someone that is only offered this way) I always end up getting emails from these guys. Are you sharing my email address with them? Does unsubscribing or responding to them share my email address with them? I have no idea. There is never anything useful and it's impossible to unsubscribe from all past and future marketplace emails which is really annoying. Come on, amazon, I really want to love you and continue shopping there but it's getting to the point that I'd rather go to wal-mart! (ok not really)

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it insidious how they present the lock screen at that point -- I clicked to dismiss, but they're asking for authorization still.

Right, the whole "enter your PIN to update tonight" screen. I just gave into the nags and updated my old iPod Touch (which I only use as a remote for some home automation things), and now it runs considerably slower.

Yeah, I gave in on my iPhone and now it runs really hot. But this time around they're being so annoying about it that having an OS that clearly wasn't designed with my hardware in mind is probably the preferable option.

Long story short, I'm pretty sure this phone is my last iPhone.

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Besides, do you really want a bureaucrat telling you how to design your web site, with penalties enforceable by law? "Bureaucrats" already tell you how to design your website. There is already laws against some forms of deceitful advertising, unfair trade practices, and information sharing and the like. For example, let's say I was working to design an airline ticket booking site... https://www.transportation.gov/po…

Those aren't web site design issues, they're truth-in-advertising and business practice issues, which apply to all forms of advertising and business. I'm talking about technical and design issues, like requiring every web site in the EU to pop up a stupid banner while you're trying to read something that blocks the content just to say, "Hey! We use cookies! Got it?" Now imagine taking that to the next level, with pag…

> I'm talking about technical and design issues, like requiring every web site in the EU to pop up a stupid banner while you're trying to read something that blocks the content just to say, "Hey! We use cookies! Got it?"

When I worried about the impact of the the EU cookie directive I read it. Surprisingly, it only requires Cookie notifications for web sites that use cookies for purposes that are not strictly necessary for the web site to function. This means that the operators of web pages that show cookie notifications are probably spying on their users for advertising (or other) purposes. The EU cookie directive only makes this obvious.

I think EU politicians know what cookies are and how they are used. You can see that in the list of cookies exempt from consent:

• session IDs

• authentication cookies

• user-centric security cookies

• session-limited multimedia player cookies

• social network cookies (for logged in members of the social network)

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies/index_en.htm

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#165

Does it count if there's no user interface? Amazon has my email address, I've been a customer since the late-nineties. They keep inventing new email lists and signing me up for them. Each time I get a new "newsletter" it says something like, "You got this message because you're subscribed to the 'Tablet News' newsletter." I click the unsubscribe link to remove myself from it. Along with the unsubscribe link there's a…

Not just Amazon, I am constantly clicking through those unsubscribe links but just get auto-signed up for new lists. Fuck you Amazon and anyone else that does this. I'll buy your junk when and if I need to. Leave me alone and stop wasting my life.

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#166

Does it count if there's no user interface? Amazon has my email address, I've been a customer since the late-nineties. They keep inventing new email lists and signing me up for them. Each time I get a new "newsletter" it says something like, "You got this message because you're subscribed to the 'Tablet News' newsletter." I click the unsubscribe link to remove myself from it. Along with the unsubscribe link there's a…

Not just Amazon, I am constantly clicking through those unsubscribe links but just get auto-signed up for new lists. Fuck you Amazon and anyone else that does this. I'll buy your junk when and if I need to. Leave me alone and stop wasting my life.

Report them at https://www.spamcop.net/anonsignup.shtml

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#167
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dark pattern is that you're biasing your review rating by not taking negative users there.

Which benefits everyone if the problem is a simple thing you can resolve by helping them directly. Support is also part of the experience, and good customer support should factor into the review as well. I can see how you'd see this as providing a positive bias, but I see it more like getting a chance to see if you can't help the customer out before they give up on your app. It also reminds the customer that there ar…

Maybe using a dark pattern here is an effective way to fight fire with fire, but that doesn't make it less of a dark pattern.

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#168
post #27

One pattern that I consider "dark", but don't see in this list, is using loaded options on a dialog box. One that I often see in apps is like: Rate our app! Those really get under my skin because the developer is clearly trying to play a psychological trick on me, but it's so brazen and obvious that it just pisses me off. And bigger companies do it too (e.g. Google).

The correct thing to do here is to hit "OK" and just kill the App Store App without leaving a review (since they can't tell if you actually review it). Or maybe leave a 1 star and a note that you were coerced into rating it!

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel you... I do it in my app and I hate doing it, but it's a necessary evil. Way too many people see the comments/ratings as either a support board or a way of punishing bad apps but very rarely they give a good or even just decent review, without being asked.

> I feel you... I do it in my app and I hate doing it, but it's a necessary evil. This is what makes the IT part of my heart die a little inside even more: when even the "good folks" in this industry feel like they have to do obnoxious things just to get ahead or keep up. Folks, this is why the bigger arguments about competition or arbitration and so on always come back to the same point ("there's no meaningful choic…

> when even the "good folks" in this industry feel like they have to do obnoxious things just to get ahead or keep up.

That's when you have to start thinking about regulation.

On the case of the Android store, regulation by Google. Their inaction is harming everyone.

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