Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

darkpatterns.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 321 posts

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

#41

Post by pesfandiar »

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).

There's another brilliant app rating pattern (perhaps a dark one). A dialog pops up and asks if I loved their app. A "yes" takes me to the marketplace for rating, but a "no" only allows me to send them feedback. It both positively skews the ratings and collects feedback from disgruntled users.

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

#42

Post by dawnerd »

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).

Even worse: the ones that go "Do you like the app/ Are you happy?" Either option will leave the app. No opens up your email with the to filled to their support and yes opens the app store.

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

#44

Post by dawnerd »

mrgreenfur wrote: post #24
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!

At least they're pretty honest with it. Every time I walk by their counter at the airport I laugh at the sign because it's like, no frills but you'll pay for everything!

In a way I kind of like that model - just not on an airplane.

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

#45

Post by EvilTerran »

JadeNB wrote: post #17
Theodores wrote: post #13

> they are not mistakes, they are carefully crafted with a solid understanding of human psychology, and they do not have the user’s interests in mind I dispute this. I work with someone who is a marketing person and very much drawn to dark pattern rubbish. Most recent incident is a good example - a sales promotion where something is added to the cart if the customer buys a certain product. I pointed out that this was…

Your experience seems to support , not refute, the idea that these are conscious decisions (albeit at a marketing, rather than coding, level, which I think is probably what the original meant) rather than inadvertent bugs.

I don't get the impression GP's disagreeing with the "not mistakes" bit, only the "carefully crafted with a solid understanding of human psychology" side of things - they're deliberate, yes, but more often than not they're clumsily-applied snake-oil, not the evil-genius stuff they're pitched as.

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

#46

Post by [deleted] »

jkaptur wrote: post #37
mvid wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Wait, if they're requiring you to pick 1-5 stars to get the dialog to go away, it must be a custom dialog built by them, right? I bet they take your one star and just hide the dialog, but take people who rate it as 5 stars to the "real" app store rating page.

[deleted]

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

#47

Post by module0000 »

emodendroket wrote: post #21
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.

Huh? What type of insurance are you talking about? I'm talking about airline flight insurance, like in the article.

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

#48

Post by TallGuyShort »

bduerst wrote: post #5
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.

LinkedIn is one of the most common examples when talking about dark patterns, their most famous being the number of ways they tried to get you to invite your gmail contacts.

I'm just realizing why the manager of the local Grease Monkey once endorsed me for "parallel algorithms".

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

#49

Post by ryandrake »

johansch wrote: post #40
Animats wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use 1111 2222 3333 4444, the credit card test number. This is valid at the check digit level, but known to all banks as a test number to be rejected.

Thanks for the tip, that may be useful in the future! I ended up using my bank's "virtual credit card" service to create a virtual CC with a balance of 1 SEK to get rid of my Uber account. Anyway, I think this is shameful of them. I would be ashamed of this practice if I worked for them. There is no excuse. You can't blindly blame it on A/B evaluations and what ended up making the company the most money. It's simply…

> I would be ashamed of this practice if I worked for them.

There's no shame because there are no consequences. "Oh, you were the guy at Company X that wrote that annoying Dark Pattern Y, huh? Can you walk me through the ethics of that?" - Said no interviewer ever.

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

#50

Post by prdonahue »

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).

This. I hate this more than I can express in a public forum.

Google is notorious for it, especially when they try to get you to use the YouTube app rather than the web interface.

It's not "maybe later" I want—it's "never ask me again".

Post reply on HN