User Manipulation in UX: Dark Patterns and Their Impact

The primary objective of UX design is to create user interfaces that are intuitive, accessible, and user-friendly. However, some designers do not prioritize the needs and wants of their users. Instead, they employ unethical UI practices known as "dark patterns" to achieve their goals or maximize business profits. Dark patterns are deceptive or manipulative design strategies that can have a negative impact on the user experience, ranging from clever gimmicks to outright scams. In today's digital landscape, these tactics are becoming increasingly common. In this article, we'll explore some of the most prevalent dark patterns in UX design and explain why it's crucial for businesses to avoid them if they want to gain consumer trust and build a successful product or service.

It takes years of hard work to get overnight success!

Above line says it all. It takes enormous amount of hard work before your name appears in the list of successful people. There are endless stories of successful and failed businesses and everyone has their own set of story. The only thing common is that the successful players knew it takes time and patience to win the game whereas on the other side failed businesses wanted it at once. But as the history proves, wrongdoings are never long lasting.

Let's explore few dark patterns and see their impact on businesses and user base:

Forced Continuity

This pattern involves making user's attempts to cancel or unsubscribe from a service or subscription challenging or ambiguous. To cancel a subscription, for instance, a business can demand that people phone a customer service number or go through several pages of options.

Misleading Subscription

This pattern involves encouraging customers to opt-in to a service or subscription by using misleading or deceptive phrasing. To deceive people into accepting to receive marketing emails or other messages, a business can, for instance, utilize pre-selected checkboxes or confusing language.

Roach Motel

This pattern involves making it simple for people to sign up for a service or subscription while making it tough for them to quit. For example, a website may let consumers to join up for a free trial with a credit card in few steps, but for cancellation they will direct user to a much complicated process like calling the call center and provide reasons for cancellation.

Sneak into Basket

This technique involves adding more products to a user's shopping cart or basket without their knowledge or consent. An eShopping site may offer a "free" or "bonus" item at checkout that is automatically added to the user's order, raising the final cost.

Bait-and-Switch

This pattern involves advertising a low-cost product or service while referring customers to a more expensive one. An online store may offer a low-cost gadget but then add hidden fees and charges during the checkout process.

Friend Spam

This practice involves sending spam or promotional messages to a user's contact list or social media contacts without their permission. For instance, a service may request that customers invite their friends to a service or app, but then send spam messages to those contacts.

Privacy Zuckering

This pattern entails duping consumers into disclosing more personal information than they planned or expected. For example, a business may employ puzzling language or pre-selected checkboxes to persuade users to submit personal information or provide an app or service inappropriate permissions.

Confirmshaming

This pattern involves using language that shames individuals into performing a specific activity. For example, a corporation may utilise phrases such as "No, I don't care about saving money" or "I prefer to remain uninformed" to persuade consumers to sign up for a newsletter or accept cookies.

Impact of Dark Patterns

Using these patterns to trick user into buying a product or subscription might help for a very short span of time, but the consequences are very harsh and can bring down your business to an end. Such patterns brings side effects such as loss of user's trust, frustrated user base, negative review all over the net and last but not legal actions.

To summaries, using dark patterns in UX design can have serious effects for both consumers and organizations. Companies can prevent these bad results while still building trust and loyalty with their customers by stressing transparency, clarity, and ethical design approaches. The main message is that UX design should always priorities the user's requirements and preferences over deceptive or manipulative approaches for short-term profits. Businesses may create a great user experience that benefits both the user and the firm in the long run by doing so.

Do share your thoughts on this as such patterns are never ending and the list keeps growing. Thank your for your time.

Writer: Jitendra Kumar Anand