Dark Patterns: Manipulation through design

In the digital environment of websites and apps, there are two different interests that very often conflict with each other: The interests of the user and the interests of the company.

The user wants to reach his goal as easily and undisturbed as possible.  The fundamental interest of a company is to design profitable products. For some companies this means generating as much profit as possible with each user and each visit. Often, however, measures are used that are not in the sense of user experience. In the long term, this can also have a negative impact on the image of a company. If one falls back on targeted psychological manipulation of the user, one speaks of so-called "dark patterns" (after Harry Brignull).

Examples of Dark Patterns

Dark Patterns are basically all design decisions that are consciously aimed at getting a user to do something that is not really in his interest. Often, emotional or conditioned behaviour of the user is deliberately exploited. For example, colours can be used to divert attention or texts can be formulated in an unclear way to mislead users.

"Misdirection"

This deception is usually based on learned behavior patterns of users: Large, conspicuous buttons or highlighted page elements almost always take you to the next step of a process on websites. This can be used to highlight the most profitable option for the company more than, for example, the cheapest or most interesting one.

In this example, clicking on the large button will not only give you the desired anti-virus software to download. Instead, one gets an unwanted "download manager" of the site operator, through which one first gets to the originally intended program. Through this intermediate step, the provider can advertise and thus earn more. The inconspicuous link "manual installation" on the other hand only starts the download of the desired program.

The dilemma is that companies often depend on such income to provide the service in the first place. Without a certain degree of influence, neither company nor user goals could be financed. It is then a matter of finding a sensible middle ground and at least providing the user with all options.

In order to give the user an honest choice, however, equivalent options should always be presented as uniformly as possible and not only the most profitable alternative for the company should be highlighted. In the interests of the user and his user experience, misleading texts and labels should also be avoided: "Manual installation", for example, sounds much more complicated and thus more daunting than "Download", although installation must ultimately be carried out with both options.

"Bait and Switch"

There is another method to use learned behavior against your users.

With the dark pattern "Bait and Switch" a user wants to perform an action, but the consequences are not as expected and mostly undesired. This is done by suddenly changing known procedures, so that the user proceeds without further consideration and does not notice the change.

For example, a button that always has the meaning "Go to next step" over several steps can suddenly become a "Buy" button. As a result, users instinctively click on the button before they realize that they have already completed the purchase.

"Forced Continuity"

Another very common Dark Pattern is "Forced Continuity", which probably most people have encountered several times in their lives. These are subscriptions that renew automatically, but were originally designed for a specific period of time. Almost all trial subscriptions work this way. Often the provider deliberately refrains from sending reminders and notices of renewal or deliberately makes it difficult to cancel the subscription (e.g. only by mail or telephone).

"Roach Motel"

The latter aspect goes directly to the so-called "Roach Motel": A situation that users can get into quickly and easily, but only get out again with difficulty. Companies that deliberately make it difficult for you to delete your accounts or cancel newsletters, for example, resort to this method. While creating an account or taking out a subscription usually works without any problems with a mouse click, such companies often have to take a long detour to unsubscribe, e.g. to customer service or by post.

As a rule, it is advisable for users to be clearly and proactively informed in advance of any possible hurdles to unsubscribing. Ideally, the deregistration should