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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]

#21

Post by emodendroket »

module0000 wrote: post #19

There is no "works for everyone" method to stop this. You can vote with your wallet, and support vendors that act ethically, or act in whatever way you are OK with. When this type of UI disappears from the internet, then you will know that the majority of consumers agree with your viewpoint. Until then, people keep buying those insurance upgrades, and not caring(if they cared, we wouldn't be in this situation). If it…

> When this type of UI disappears from the internet, then you will know that the majority of consumers agree with your viewpoint. Until then, people keep buying those insurance upgrades, and not caring(if they cared, we wouldn't be in this situation).

In a situation where you are legally compelled to buy insurance and essentially all providers do this that's completely wrong.

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

#22

Post by TeMPOraL »

Cafey wrote: post #11
aamederen wrote: post #6

This kind of "hall of shame" websites are interesting to me. However, most of the regular users do not know nor care about this stuff. Well, in a semi-ideal world, there would be a comprehensive "hall of shame" database containing the information about the tricks, problems, dark patterns, etc. for all websites. Then, some helper apps or browser extensions could warn us about these issues while a regular user is brows…

In an ideal world we could detect those patterns programmatically but as you hinted, there is the question of "when is it considered a dark pattern and when is it only clever marketing?".

The answer is actually clear - it's always "dark pattern" from the POV of the user, and it's always "clever marketing" from the POV of the business applying it. Each side draws the line so far in the direction of the other that there isn't any easy compromise.

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

#23

Post by sourthyme »

cs702 wrote: post #15

Great video and great website. My only nitpick: the author wants the industry to agree on a "code of ethics." Unfortunately, such exhortations strike me as naive. They are unlikely to work, because the truly bad actors will continue to use dark patterns regardless, putting pressure on all other actors to follow suit. The key challenge is not in getting the good actors to do the right thing, but in preventing the bad…

What about an organization that helps consumers to cancel or opt out of deals instantly. From the talk if a dark pattern gets a consumer to accept a deal, it is very difficult to leave, so going to help for this could work especially if the help can cancel hassle free very quickly.

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

#24

Post by mrgreenfur »

BatFastard wrote: post #8

Spirit airlines is a user of dark patterns. But its almost like a game on their site trying to avoid all of the up-sells! I may stay away from LA Fitness just because of this article.

The fun part of spirit is that it doesn't end on the site, you have to dodge the dark patterns on the flight too!

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

#25

Post by covercash »

Would gofundme's entire brand and business model be considered a dark pattern? They go out of their way to make it feel like a nonprofit, promote campaigns for issues that already have actual nonprofit status/direct donation pages, and do their best to hide their fees (which, last I checked, were actually higher for legitimate nonprofits than for regular campaigns).

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

#26

Post by johansch »

My pet peeve: If you add a credit card to the Uber app there is no way to remove it without replacing it with another valid payment method. If you google solutions to this you get third party recommendations to plead with their customer service to have it removed. Seriously?

This customer-hostile approach really needs to be killed.

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

#27

Post by cle »

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).

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

#28

Post by Waterluvian »

cle wrote: 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).

Yeah I hate that. Beyond what you said, it also suggests to me, "Not Yet must mean that it will annoy me again and again."

Even if that's not true, I may never visit the page again if my perception is that it's gearing up to annoy me.

I will often see: OK, NOT YET, DON'T SHOW AGAIN. Which I think is fine.

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

#29

Post by Animats »

sethbannon wrote: post #12
serg_chernata wrote: post #3

There's no search but I'm curious if LinkedIn is included. I never took screenshots, unfortunately, but I feel like they've had close to 5 in my own experience alone.

Here's the one of the most egregious examples of LinkedIn's dark UX. The transition from "I'm accepting incoming invites" to "I'm inviting people to connect or join LinkedIn" is intentionally subtle: https://goo.gl/photos/ncnTiMWeSBJfg3rZ6

That link itself is a dark pattern. It tries to get you to sign into Google; you can't see the photos otherwise.

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

#30

Post by mvid »

cle wrote: 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).

Tinder is the worst I have seen, they require you to pick between 1-5 stars to get the dialog to go away at all. Guess who always gets one star.
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