The dangers of dishonest design.
It’s 2017 and UX design is hot. It’s transforming the news, our health, our relationships and our businesses. But with great power, comes great responsibility. In the lawless land of the internet, double-dealing design practices often go unchecked and unchallenged, until now. Let’s dig deep into the dark art of dark patterns and see why you don’t want deception in your design.
What is a dark pattern?
A dark pattern is a user interface made with the intention to trick a user. Unlike an anti-pattern, a dark pattern is cunning and considered, making it easy to opt in and hell to opt out. Facebook uses them. Microsoft uses them. Most brands you interact with everyday use them.
They come in all shapes and sizes - whether it be sending out unauthorised messages to your contacts, opting you into a service by default, or creating ads to look like content; they ultimately prioritise business wants over user needs.
4 reasons why you shouldn’t use dark patterns.
1. They’re unethical.
Dark patterns cross the line from creative persuasion into deceptive manipulation. UX designers have a duty to uphold a user’s best intention. Should we be doing this? Are the ends justified by the means? Would we like this done to us? These are all great questions to keep your ethics in check.
“It’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility.”
— Alan Cooper, Ranch Stories
2. They’re bad for business
There’s a reason why there’s no such thing as ‘business-centred design’ - this side is already over-represented. It’s happy users that make happy businesses, not the other way around. Being duped creates a negative user experience and zaps your brand’s credibility to boot.
3. They’re regressive
A dark pattern is an easy way out of a difficult problem, a symptom that there’s something lurking beneath the surface needing to be solved. We owe it to the next generation to stand up, set the standard and uncover these real design challenges.
4. They’re illegal
If the last 3 points didn’t put you off, this will. The EU have updated their Consumer Rights Directive to outlaw dark patterns, and it’s only a matter of time before the world follows. LinkedIn have paid the price; $13M in a 2015 class action lawsuit for their dishonest design.
“Don’t be a cog in someone else’s bad solution to a dumb problem.”
— Mark Wilson, Fast CoDesign
Where to from here: design’s desponsibility.
Online vigilante Darkpatterns.org name and shame the big-name perpetrators, forcing them to fess up and own their design misdeeds. With this, they have given us the language and the ammunition to open discourse and take action on these UX offences.
If the rise in bots and pocket AI shows us anything, it’s that our digital interfaces are becoming more human: both conversational and consolatory. What about virtuous, conscientious even? Interfaces planned only with a user’s best interest in mind. In this current climate of ad-blockers, the users of tomorrow won’t have time for bad design.