Dylan Thomas' presentation from World Usability Day on 14th November 2013. Dark patterns are anti-patterns with a nefarious purpose - intentionally flawed designs. Carefully-crafted ‘bad’ designs; built with a pinch of psychology and a healthy dose of trickery. This is an introduction to this interesting, and often fun, side of web design and some of the methods used by companies to swindle and snare their users. This is not user-centred design!

1. Dark Patterns in
UX
A short guide to being evil

2. Who am I?
Dylan Thomas - @DylanLT
(I’ve heard them all before)
User Experience Consultant for Box UK
www.boxuk.com

3. What are Dark
Patterns?
An introduction to the dark side

4. Way back in 2010...
Harry Brignull
www.90percentofeverything.com
Dark Patterns: dirty tricks
designers use to make
people do stuff
www.darkpatterns.org

5. Dark Patterns are...
• Intentional anti-patterns
• Designed with a good knowledge of human
•
•
psychology
Designed to manipulate or deceive the user
Tricks, traps and pitfalls

6. Psychology of
Dark Patterns
Tools of the trade

7. Dark Triad
Machiavellian
Narcissistic
Psychopathic

8. Machiavellianism
• Personal gain
• Manipulation
• Exploitation
• Deception

9. Cognitive Biases
People’s tendencies to think a certain way,
sometimes influencing them to make irrational
decisions.
!
• Heuristics - hard wiring in the brain
• Motivations
• Beliefs
• Emotions

10. Cognitive Biases
• Confirmation Bias
• Ingroup Bias
• Gambler’s Fallacy
• Post-Purchase Rationalisation
• Neglecting Probability
• Projection Bias
• Anchoring Effect

11. Why Dark
Patterns are Used
Why good designers go bad

12. Why Dark Patterns are Used
• Aggressive environments and targets
• Focus on simple KPIs
• More clicks
• More sign-ups
• More sales
• Blinkered view on success
• Profit
• Greed

13. Why am I telling
you all this?
Why it’s good to know the tricks

14. Why am I telling you all this?
• If people know the tricks, they can avoid
•
•
•
falling for them
Companies can be shamed into changing
their practices
The psychology is interesting
It’s fun!

15. Roach Motel
Easy to get in. Hard to get out.

16. Roach Motel
An interface that makes it easy, and often
enticing, for the user to get into a situation, but
difficult for them to get out.

17. Roach Motel
Example - Email newsletters
• Make it very easy for a user to subscribe to
an email newsletter
• Make the unsubscribe option difficult to find
• Bad navigation
• Confusing forms
• Multiple newsletters
• Not have the option online at all

18. Forced
Continuity
Cancel at any time during the free period

19. Forced Continuity
A user signs up for a free trial of a service, but
is asked for their credit card details. Once the
free trial is over, the user is automatically billed.
The user is not warned beforehand, and the
site will often make it difficult to cancel (Roach
Motel)

20. Forced Continuity

21. Hidden Costs
WTF is a ‘convenience charge’?

22. Hidden Costs
The practice of adding on costs and charges at
the end of a checkout process, that were not
previously detailed.

23. Hidden Costs
• Facility charge
• Convenience charge
• Order processing fee
• £2.50 to print out my own bloody tickets!

24. Trick Question
Tick this box to opt-out of not opting-in

25. Trick Question
A question, when glanced upon briefly, appears
to ask something one thing, but on closer
inspection, is asking something else.
“We don’t read pages. We scan them”
- Steve Krug

26. Trick Question

27. Trick Question

28. Trick Question

29. Trick Question

30. Disguised Ads
Download buttons, download buttons
everywhere.

31. Disguised Ads
Adverts disguised as UI elements in order to
trick users into clicking on them

32. Disguised Ads

33. Other Examples
• Gambling
• Fruit machine design
• “Snake oil”
• Advertising
• Retail
• Inkjet printers
• Banks and Credit Cards

34. Free to Play
Games
And how cookies affect our resolve

35. Free to Play Games
Video games that are free to acquire and play,
but offer virtual items, currency, gameplay
enhancements, and shortcuts for a price.

36. Free to Play Games
Ego Depletion
Dr Roy Baumeister - Cape Western University

37. Free to Play Games

38. Free to Play Games

39. Free to Play Games

40. Free to Play Games

41. Free to Play Games

42. Free to Play Games

43. Free to Play Games

44. The Big Question

45. Should we use these
techniques?
• Yes
• No
• Maybe
• It depends

46. Should we use these
techniques?
User Experience should put the user first
(In an ideal world)

47. Should we use these
techniques?
Influencing the user isn’t always evil
and it’s rarely black or
white

48. Should we use these
techniques?
Pissed-off users are less likely to return

49. Should we use these
techniques?
Business needs should be in line with the
user’s needs
(In an ideal world)

50. To Summarise
What I think about all this

51. To Summarise
• Do be aware what you’re influencing the user
•
•
•
•
•
•
to do
Do have empathy
Do promote the benefits of user-centred design
Do have a holistic view of success
Don’t game the system
Don’t deceive the user
Don’t be evil

52. Thank you!
Dylan Thomas - @DylanLT
South Wales Usability Discussion Group - @SW_UK