One simple trick to increase User Experience [Read now!]
A short article about dark patterns and this blog
You were tricked! (sorry)
This article is an example of a dark pattern. A terrible practice in design and marketing. According to Brownlee (Fast Co. Design), dark patterns are misleading or otherwise deceptive UI/UX decisions that exploit human psychology to get users to do things they don’t want to do.
“Any short-term gains a company gets from a dark pattern is lost in the long term” - Hoa Loranger, NN/g
They are simply a bad UX.
Why does the dark pattern work?
People scan rather than read. They jump around pages, skipping some content - they are looking for a piece of specific information, or they want to accomplish some goal. Also, users are efficient. They want to complete a task with the smallest amount of effort. Creators of the dark patterns know this exactly. They carefully design interfaces to trick us. Let’s take a look at examples…
Unclear labels, checkboxes, buttons
Take a look at the example below:
The most classic example is a mix of opt-in and opt-out checkboxes one after the other. The meaning of the second one is reversed, so it tricks the first one. Typically unclear language is also in this manipulation package.
Bait and switch
This article is a great example. You come here because you read an interesting headline. One simple trick to get rid of all UX problems? Unfortunately, in the real world, it’s not that easy.
But… maybe you learned something from this blog? In the future expect audits and tips for beginners and experienced UX/UI Designers!
Please let me know what you think. Do you have any suggestions or questions?
Further readings: