Dark Patterns

This week, Paul had talked about dark patterns.

But what are dark patterns in UX?

Dark patterns are tricks used in websites and apps that make you do things that you didn’t mean to, like buying or signing up for something.

Often, these things are hidden in fine print. As in, you didn’t see this stuff until after you had already agreed to it. It’s unethical but it’s usually done to make money. There are many examples of dark patterns, but here are a few:

Amazon making the process of unsubscribing from Prime harder for users. Shaming users by forcing them to confirm ‘I Do Not Want My Benefits’ when they want to cancel their subscription.

In Instagram’s new design in the app, they have switched out the notifications with the shopping page, and users accidentally click where notifications used to be found.

Google tweaked their search results so that when users search for something, there is a delay, and users accidentally click on the top ad after it loads.

A more subtle example is Reddit continuously pushing users to use their mobile app. An annoying cats vs dogs popup window interrupts their web experience.

Types of dark patterns

Trick questions: When filling in a form for a site, you may be asked to answer a question that appears to say one thing, but actually says something else.

Sneak into Basket: Items appear in your shopping basket that you didn’t order when checking out. Probably because you didn’t uncheck something on the previous screen that was selected by default.