Design for trust — dark patterns and how to avoid them
As UX designers, we are not only designing user interfaces and flows, we also design user- behaviours. These days, it has become a common practice for products and services to use dark-patterns, which can manipulate or deceive users into doing something they didn’t intend to do. For example, they could make users buy something they didn’t intend to, sign up for sharing more data or information than they are comfortable with, or make a decision which is not in their best interest.
These practices are designed to usually benefit the company or business, and not the user. As more and more user behaviours are moving online due to the digitisation of society, dark UX patterns have become more complex, hard to detect, and sadly, very common.
Dark patterns erode user trust, and discourage users from doing business with the company in the long run.
They can lead to unwillingness to part with data or information, and can harm the company’s brand. By intentionally taking away user agency and control, the product makes the user feel like the company doesn’t have their back!
Some well-known dark patterns are:
🪳 Roach Motel: Letting a user get into a situation easily, but making it hard to get out. eg: revoking consent to something the user might have initially agreed to, like providing consent for data collection, or cancelling a subscription.
⤵️ Misdirection: Intentionally directing the user’s attention away from the alternative option, either by hiding it, making it less apparent visually, or re-wording it. A variant of this is also known as confirm-shaming, where the alternate option is worded in such a way as to guilt the user into compliance.
💰Hidden costs: Hiding fees or costs from users until the last step of the buying process, usually the checkout page- where they find there are additional fees that were not disclosed up front, or things that are sneaked into the cart/basket.
Savvy users are becoming aware of the more commonly found dark patterns more, here. However, the impact of dark patterns is not equitable. Their impact is much higher for users with low literacy, lower income individuals, children, older adults, and other historically disadvantaged groups. (source)
While product-builders in big-tech avoid using common-place dark patterns (most of the times) companies are finding creative ways to capitalise on a user’s time, money, and attention. Many of these dark patterns are undefined, and hard to detect. They also do not fit into any regulatory laws, and can thus go unchecked for a long time. Remember that behaviours like doom-scrolling, spamming users with notifications or ads, social-media FOMO, or binge-watching on an OTT-platform are intentionally designed, and even savvy users fall prey to these regularly.
As a designer, you are responsible for the work that you put out into the world. Here’s how to avoid designing dark UX patterns:
☑️ Use opt in, rather than opt-out while signing the user up for something.
⭐️ Give users control over how to share their information, and how much information to share.
🔓 Review the defaults that your product offers — especially when it comes to privacy, data-collection, visibility, and receiving communication from the company.
🍻 Be transparent about user consent. Use that extra real estate on the UI to explain why your company needs the user’s data, how you will use it, and what value the customer gets, in return.
🕑 Give users agency on how to use their time.
☘️ Prioritise the user’s long term well-being.
If your company is in the growth phase, avoiding dark patterns can be hard. Trust is not a one-person job, and it’s the responsibility of the whole organisation. Often, dark UX and related behaviours originate due to growth-hacking — a discipline within product-building that incentivises and normalises manipulative practices in design. On a personal level as a designer, you can design the feature in such a way that ensures maximum transparency, and keeps the user informed about the consequences of their actions, at all points in time.
In addition, you can influence upwards — talk to your senior leadership about why such practices might hurt the business in the long run. Speaking up, one feature at a time, can go a long way towards making tech products safer and trustworthy for humans to use!
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Further Reading:
This cool website dedicated to identifying and shaming dark patterns! https://www.darkpatterns.org
How to convince others not to use dark patterns:
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2020/05/convince-others-against-dark-patterns/
An infographic guide to dark patterns:
