It's the age of dark patterns. In a new paper, we show how they emerged from three decades-long trends, highlight what's new and why it's deeply problematic, and exhort designers to do better.
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.114… by @aruneshmathur, @ineffablicious, Mihir Kshirsagar, and me.
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.114… by @aruneshmathur, @ineffablicious, Mihir Kshirsagar, and me.
Manipulative sales practices have been around forever. But the online environment is different. In particular, user interfaces that optimize clicks using A/B testing and machine learning may gravitate toward deception even if that's not the designer's intent!
A big part of the answer to "where did dark patterns come from?" is growth hacking. It's a community filled with ingenuity but unfortunately didn't draw clear ethical lines. dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.114…
These ideas crystallized for me through discussions with my coauthors after @AlexReeveGivens invited me to speak at Tech Foundations for Congressional Staff. 🙏 techfoundations2019.splashthat.com
The best way to understand something is to teach it to someone far from your area of expertise.
The best way to understand something is to teach it to someone far from your area of expertise.
