Unveiling the Mysteries of Dark Patterns

The word dark patterns have been floating around the industry for many years, and we have seen many scenarios where product designers intentionally manipulate user behaviour and intention through dark patterns. We survive each day by solving problems big and small. The stories told by the applications tell us how complex or easy it is to reach the end goal. The emotions created through our experiences while interacting with the applications can impact how we will face the same experience again.

With the demand to keep up with constant changes in user wants and needs and influence user behaviour, product designers tend to use techniques to influence choices or behaviours we would not take while interacting with the application. Dark patterns will manipulate a user to conduct actions such as subscribing, signing up, and buying items they did not want to buy in the first place.

A Personal Encounter with a Dark Pattern

One day, while browsing Instagram, I stumbled upon an account selling wristwatches. Excited, I clicked on the link and was taken to a page with the fortune wheel with a big heading saying “Buy one, Get one Free” promotion. The offer that I was placed in front of me was irresistible. To my excitement, the fortune wheel also included a “Mystery Gift” section. I spun the wheel with loads of hopes and wishes and to my excitement, the curser landed on the mystery gift section. I was thrilled and excited about my newfound wealth, and I eagerly proceeded to the checkout to claim my reward.

However, all the happiness and excitement turned into sadness and disappointment when I recognized that the “Free” gift was no longer a “Free Gift.” I was asked to purchase an item from the store to claim my gift. Feeling deceived, I abandoned the checkout process, excited the web application, and removed the recommendation from Instagram. I have not visited that website before, but the manipulative design of the application has drawn me to it. I have not gone back to that web page ever since.

What are dark patterns?

The concept of dark patterns is not new in the world of design. Harry Brignull, a UX professional, introduced the term in 2010. In his book Unveiling the Mysteries of Dark Patterns: Navigating Ethics in Design, he explains and explores how deceptive design practices exploit human psychology to achieve business goals. Dark patterns capitalize on exploiting user behaviours, emotions, trust, and cognitive biases to drive user actions. While these tricks may lead to short-term gains, they often lead to user mistrust and negative long-term consequences, such as rage quits, negative feedback, user frustration, decreased user retention, and frustration.

Dark patterns leverage the fact that users make decisions based on their emotions, often without fully considering the outcome. Organizations that prioritize short-term profits may justify these tactics, but the cost of breaking the trust of focus groups can be high. We live in a fast-moving industry, and user trust is one of the most valuable currencies.

Common types of Dark patterns

The Bait-and-Switch: The bait-and-switch occurs when users promise one solution but receive another that does not align with their wants and needs. This was exactly what I experienced with the Wheel of Fortune on the wristwatch website. It promised me a gift and lured me in, only to find out there was no free gift.23gew

Sneak into Basket: This is a common dark pattern in e-commerce applications. Users buy an item they desire from the application, and when they check the basket to conduct the checkout, they can find more items they have not purchased during the buying process. These add-ons are quite sneaky and will not see them unless carefully looked at. For example, an airline application could select travel insurance assuming the users might not notice the extra charge unless they look closely.

Roach Motel: Users are easily guided into a situation but make it extremely difficult to leave. The most common example of this scenario is the subscription services provided by different types of applications. These services allow you to subscribe to the application with ease, but when you decide to part ways with the application, the application interaction flow makes it extremely difficult to exit.
Example: A common example of this scenario is the issue that Amazon Prime users were having when trying to onboard with the application and as soon as they decided to part ways with the application by unsubscribing, they were met with roadblocks such as navigating to multiple pages, asking multiple conformation prompts like “Here is what you will miss” or “Are you sure?”, and redirecting to options which encourages the user to pause the cancellation.

Confirmshaming: Confirmshaming is a method in which users are emotionally manipulated to delay or avoid a decision to exit an application through guilt or shame. The concept of Confirmshaming has even reached highly professional platforms like YouTube Premium. YouTube, which has billions of users worldwide, has been criticized for using Confirmshaming tactics when users attempt to cancel their premium subscriptions. When users try to cancel their subscriptions, they are faced with an emotional dilemma through prompts such as “Wait! You’ll lose your ad-free experience!” or “Do you want uninterrupted videos?” Users are also reminded of losing features like exclusive content, background play, and offline downloads, which can discourage them from completing the cancellation process.

Forced Continuity: I have encountered forced continuity multiple times while engaging with consumer-based products. A couple of years ago, I purchased an antivirus program and got a great deal since it was the Christmas season. I chose a yearly subscription because I didn’t want to bother with monthly payments. Over the months, I forgot about the antivirus and went about my usual activities. Suddenly, I received a notification stating that $99 had been charged to my debit card. Shocked, I started reviewing the list of subscriptions I had made throughout the year and noticed that I was being charged for the antivirus. I had planned to unsubscribe, as the payment for the second year was much higher than I had expected. I did not receive any email beforehand indicating that I was nearing the end of my subscription. If I had received such an email, I would have quickly terminated the subscription.

The psychological impact of dark patterns

The dark patterns primarily focus on exploiting the cognitive biases of loss aversion, fear of missing out, and decision fatigue. The triggering of these cognitive biases can influence users to make hasty decisions, pressuring them to cancel an exit process or pause it for a limited amount of time.
The constant exposure to dark patterns can have a deep impact on users by creating mistrust, anger, and frustration. Users who are deceived by dark patterns will have less faith in the application and are less likely to return to it, recommend the product to others, provide positive feedback, or complete their day-to-day activities using the application. This will hurt focus group retention, reduce the ability to attract new users and damage the brand’s reputation.
Ultimately, this will lead to ethical implications that harm the product’s long-term user trust and loyalty. Even though the product may generate short-term profits, it will damage the long-term relationship and respect of its users.

Light at the end of the tunnel: Ethical design

There is an antidote for dark patterns that we can use in our product as product designers. Ethical design can cure the mishaps that happen due to dark patterns through the following methods.

Keeping your design transparent: The design should communicate the intent of the product, what the policies are, whether fees are involved (which users should know about beforehand), and what the focus groups can and cannot do using the application. This will set clear boundaries and provide users with a proper understanding of the application.

Respect the user intent: The focus groups are trying to overcome/solve a problem that they are facing daily and the product we are designing as product designers should not be using any language or interactions that would mislead the users to thinking otherwise.

Provide an easy exit: The focus groups are not going to use your application forever. They will stop using the application when they no longer need it. We should not be greedy in retaining users and should provide them with interactions that make it easy to find the exit and unsubscribe from the application when they no longer need our services.

Design is not just about aesthetics or functionality — it’s about building relationships. A product that earns user trust will achieve sustainable success, while one that relies on dark patterns risks alienating its audience. The future of design lies not in tricking users but in empowering them, and creating experiences that are intuitive, transparent, and genuinely satisfying.