#UXUI #design #manipulation #users #techniques #buyers #articles #layout #calltoactions #psychology #colors #emotion #animation #darkpatterns #techniques
Introduction:
Close to 67% of the global population (5.3 billion) owns a smartphone, with approximately 87% in Europe, and nearly 63% (4.9 billion) have access to the Internet. Each of these individuals is confronted daily with web and mobile interfaces. Some companies, which have had to digitize themselves over the years due to the evolution of new technologies, sometimes offer a deceitful design interface to encourage you to perform unwanted actions in order to increase their profit or visibility. These actions, which you do not want to do, are called dark patterns.
10 Dark Patterns techniques:
1- Misdirection or Trick Questions:
This technique involves using design elements to draw a user's attention away from their original intention, or for them to pay less. For example, a website might use a brightly colored button labeled "Continue" next to a less noticeable link that says "Cancel," leading users to unintentionally progress to the next step.
Below, the purchase button is misleading because it offers you two options: without insurance or with insurance.
2- Sneak Into Basket:
Some e-commerce websites might add additional products or services to a user's shopping cart by default, assuming that users won't notice or take the time to remove them. For instance, in this website, they added an item for 1$.
3- Confirm-shaming:
This technique is often used in subscription-based services when users try to cancel. Instead of a straightforward cancellation option, the website might use guilt-inducing language, such as "No, I don't want to save money," making the user feel pressured to continue the subscription.
4- Trick Questions:
This technique involves using language that intentionally confuses or misleads users. For instance, a website might ask, "Do you not want to receive our newsletter?" in a way that makes it difficult for users to understand their actual choice.
5- Hidden Costs:
This dark pattern deceives you about hidden costs (taxes, additional fees) when making a purchase on an e-commerce site. It's when you reach the final page of the purchasing process that you discover additional costs that were not specified earlier. In the example below, you think you're paying $35 for your product, but when you reach the last step of the purchasing process, on the confirmation screen, you realize that costs have been added.
6- "Complicating the Path (Labyrinth)
This dark pattern makes it difficult for you to perform an action that would go against the company's profit in order to keep you on their site or service. In the example below, deleting your Amazon account is not easily accessible because the action is hidden.
7-The Roach Motel
Roach motels" is the term used to describe websites that, like a cockroach trap, allow their target to enter but not exit. "Some companies force users to review all sections and subsections to find the section allowing them to close their account," confirms Jérémie Poiroux, co-founder of Ethical Designers, who advocates for designs that are more respectful of the user.
This well-made video demonstrates the convoluted journey one must undertake to close their Amazon account.
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