Dark Patterns
Dark Patterns are patterns in the design of a website or application that benefit a company by guiding users to perform an action they may not have done otherwise. Such an action might include buying a product that was automatically added to their shopping cart, signing up for a subscription service, or posting a social media status without explicit permission. Dark patterns may hide information or decrease visibility of an opt-out option for the user in order to increase company’s revenue or gain new users.
The phrase “dark patterns” is a relatively new word used in the field of user experience (UX) design [1]
History
The name dark patterns was coined in 2010 by London-based user experience designer Harry Brignull.[2]
Types of Dark Patterns
As of February 2017, there are eleven different types of dark patterns.
Bait and Switch
The user tries to do one task but an undesirable thing happens instead. [3]
An example is Microsoft’s prompts to get users to upgrade to Windows 10. Pop-ups asking users to upgrade became increasingly more forceful in encouraging users to upgrade. The “X” in the upper right corner of the pop-up window, which typically means close or cancel, was changed so that when clicked, the Windows 10 update would proceed without the user intending to do so.
Disguised Ads
Advertisements are disguised to look like part of the website or application, typically as part of navigation or content, to encourage users to click on them.[4]
An example is Softpedia, a software download site, which uses advertising to get revenue. Advertisements on this site often look like download buttons, causing users to click on the ads instead of what they actually wanted to download.
Forced Continuity
Forced continuity is when a free trial with a service ends and a user’s credit card is charged without a reminder. In some cases, it might be hard to cancel the membership.[5]
An example is Affinion Group, an international loyalty program that works on customer relations for businesses. When buying a train ticket through Trainline (a partner ecommerce business), users are confronted with a disguised ad at the top of the confirmation page with a large “Continue” button, fooling users into wrongly clicking it to finish the transaction.
Friend Spam
The website or application asks for a user’s email or social media permissions to find a user’s friends and sends the user’s contacts a message.
For example, when signing up for a LinkedIn account, the website encourages users to grant LinkedIn access to their email account contacts to grow their network on LinkedIn.[6] If a user accepts, LinkedIn sends emails to all of a user’s contacts claiming to be from the user. https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/friend-spam
Hidden Costs
The hidden costs pattern typically occurs in the checkout process where some costs are not upfront or transparent.[7] A user may find some unexpected charges like delivery or tax fees at the very end of the checkout process before confirming an order. By adding these hidden costs at the very end, a user is less inclined to find another service to get the product after investing a lot of time in the checkout process.
For example, ProFlowers, a flower retailer in the United States, has a six-step checkout process. When a user adds something to their shopping cart, the cost of that item is upfront. After going through the checkout process and getting past the fifth step of entering payment information, the last step before confirming the order displays delivery and care and handling costs that were not mentioned prior to that step.
Misdirection
Misdirection draws a user’s attention from one part of the page or website to another part of the interface.[8]
For example, the Australian low-cost airline jetstar.com by default pre-selects an airplane seat for the customer during the flight booking process, but this costs $5. A user can also skip seat selection for no extra cost, but the page hides this skip option at the bottom of the page, therefore misdirecting the customer to think they should choose a seat.
Price Comparison Prevention
The price comparison prevention dark pattern makes it hard for a user to compare the price of an item with another, making it harder to make an informed decision.[9] This is common with online retailers that sell packaged products withuot showing price per weight, making it hard to work out the unit price of items within a bundle.
An example is sainsburys.co.uk, an online grocery service. The company hides price per weight so it’s hard for users to see if it’s cheaper to buy loose items or the packaged/bundled item.
Privacy Zuckering
Privacy Zuckering is a design pattern that gets users to publicly sharing more information about themselves than they intend to. [10] This pattern typically occurs in the small print within the Terms and Conditions of a service, which gives them permission to sell a user’s personal data to data brokers.
Roach Motel
The roach motel dark pattern makes it easy for a user to get into a particular situation but is difficult to opt-out of it later.
An example is a ticket sales site like Ticketmaster, which by default sneaks a magazine subscription into a user’s shopping cart. If a user doesn’t notice this and proceeds, they are automatically charged. To get a rebate and unsubscribe, the user has to download a form and send the request via postal service.
Sneak into Basket
The dark pattern “sneak into basket,” also known as “negative option billing” and “inertia selling,” appears when a website sneaks an additional item into a user’s shopping cart. [11] This occurs most often via an opt-out radio button or checkbox on a preceding page.
An example of this dark pattern is GoDaddy.com, a domain name hosting site. When a user buys a domain name bundle (e.g. getting 3 domains and therefore saving 69%), the site automatically adds privacy protection at $7.99 per domain per year. When a user proceeds to checkout, it’s revealed that two years of domain name registration for all purchased domains have been added to the basket.
Trick Questions
The trick questions dark pattern are questions that at first glance seem to ask one thing, but upon closer reading actually asks another question entirely. [12] This often occurs when registering or signing up for a service.
An example is on Currys PC World’s registration form, which presents two checkboxes: one that says “Please do not send me details of products and offers from Currys.co.uk” and below that, “Please send me details of products and offers from third party organisations...”
News and Media
https://darkpatterns.org/reading-list
Criticism
http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/using-dark-patterns-for-good/
References
- ↑ https://arstechnica.com/security/2016/07/dark-patterns-are-designed-to-trick-you-and-theyre-all-over-the-web/
- ↑ https://arstechnica.com/security/2016/07/dark-patterns-are-designed-to-trick-you-and-theyre-all-over-the-web/
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/bait-and-switch
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/disguised-ads
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/forced-continuity
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/friend-spam
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/hidden-costs
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/misdirection
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/price-comparison-prevention
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/privacy-zuckering
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/sneak-into-basket
- ↑ https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/trick-questions
