Reading list

This paper reports on qualitative research (focus groups and interviews) carried out on the theme of Dark Patterns.

In Mexico, large Black octagons are now placed on the packaging of products that are high in saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, sodium or calories.

The findings of this paper "support the notion that the EU’s consent requirement for tracking cookies does not work as intended. Further, we give insights into why this might be the case and recommendations on how to address the issue."

This paper analyzes ‘dark patterns’ from a regulatory perspective, critiquing the EU's data privacy and consumer protection frameworks and discussing enforcement measures. It concludes that a pluralistic approach combining the strengths of different regulatory regimes is needed to address dark patterns effectively.

Academics working with StubHub carried out a huge test on hidden fees vs vs upfront fees. Users who weren’t shown fees upfront spent ≈21% more and were 14% more likely to complete a purchase. This research involved several million participants.

"A challenging exploration of user interactions and design patterns. To play the game, simply fill in the form as fast and accurate as possible."

Manipulative political discourse undermines voters’ autonomy and thus threatens democracy. Using a newly assembled corpus of more than 100,000 political emails from over 2,800 political campaigns and organizations sent during the 2020 U.S. election cycle, we find that manipulative tactics are the norm, not the exception. The majority of emails nudge recipients to open them by employing at least one of six manipulative tactics that we identified; the median sender uses such tactics 43% of the time. Some of these tactics are well known, such as sensationalistic subject lines. Others are more devious, such as deceptively formatted“From:” lines that attempt to trick recipients into believing that the message is a continuation of an ongoing conversation. Manipulative fundraising tactics are also rife in the bodies of emails. Our data can be browsed atelectionemails2020.org

"GDPR expects specific prerequisites for a lawful consent, which should be valid, freely given, specific, informed and active… however… the majority of people do not seem to be empowered to practice their digital right to privacy and lawful consenting"

Researchers analyzed Dark Patterns in 240 apps and ran an experiment with 589 users on how they perceive Dark Patterns. They found 95% of the apps contained Dark Patterns and that most users do not recognize Dark Patterns unless informed beforehand.

An interesting counterpoint to the many stories of organisations making it hard for consumers to cancel their subscriptions. Here, Netflix does the opposite and automatically cancels premium subscriptions on inactive accounts.

This paper traces the origins of dark patterns, highlights contemporary issues, and describes where they might be heading in the future. It offers recommendations for designers to steer clear of these patterns.

Policy brief with suggestions for how to regulate dark patterns.

"We show that digital manipulation erodes users’ ability to act rationally, which empowers platforms to extract wealth and build market power without doing so on the merits. [...] our research asserts that antitrust enforcement should go further in promoting decisional privacy."

This research highlights the growing scrutiny of dark patterns by journalists and academics, which can damage brand reputations and attract regulatory attention. The core message emphasizes that just as software engineers have learned to take responsibility for the power they wield, it is now time for designers to recognize and embrace their own responsibilities to users and society.

New consent management platforms (CMPs) have been introduced to the web to conform with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, particularly its requirements for consent when companies collect and process users' personal data.

A book featuring research on human and automated methods to deter the spread of misinformation online, such as legal or policy changes, information literacy workshops, and algorithms that can detect fake news dissemination patterns in social media.

"Designers face the same challenges as everyone else in the complex conditions of contemporary cultural life-choices about consumption, waste, exploitation, ecological damage, and political problems built into the supply chains on which the global systems of inequity currently balance precariously. But designers face the additional dilemma that their paid work is often entangled with promoting the same systems such critical approaches seek to redress: how to reconcile this contradiction, among others, in seeking to chart an ethical course of action while still functioning effectively in the world."

Business facing guidelines by the Dutch Consumers and Markets Authority showing what manipulative practices to avoid.

"After reviewing 200 of the top shopping sites, including Amazon, eBay and Macys.com, a study by the University of Michigan’s School of Information found that all the sites had an average of 19 features that could encourage impulse buying, such as limited-time discounts and wording that made an item seem like it was almost out of stock.

The Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing entitled, “Americans at Risk: Manipulation and Deception in the Digital Age.” Witnesses included Monika Bickert, Joan Donovan, Ph.D., Tristan Harris and Justin (Gus) Hurwitz.

"Sludge" is an alternative term for Dark Patterns. In this paper, Cass Sunstein argues that institutions should conduct Sludge Audits to catalogue the costs of sludge, because it can hurt the most vulnerable members of society.

Researchers analyzed 300 data collection consent notices from news outlets to ensure compliance with GDPR. The analysis uncovered a variety of dark patterns that circumvent the intent of GDPR by design.

In Design for Cognitive Bias, David Dylan Thomas lays bare the irrational forces that shape our everyday decisions and, inevitably, inform the experiences we craft. Once we grasp the logic powering these forces, we stand a fighting chance of confronting them, tempering them, and even harnessing them for good.

"If you’ve wondered whether there were actually 30 people trying to book the same flight as you, you’re not alone. As Chris Baraniuk finds, the numbers may not be all they seem."

"Many e-commerce offers are pushed with fake notifications, bogus countdown timers and other misleading tactics"

"Members of Princeton’s Web Transparency & Accountability Project (WebTAP) used automated web-crawling programs to assemble a list of the dark patterns the programs could see in a page’s text. Then they classified the dark patterns’ methods systematically.

A study of dark patterns in cookie consent dialogues.

"We present automated techniques that enable experts to identify dark patterns on a large set of websites. Using these techniques, we study shopping websites, which often use dark patterns to influence users into making more purchases or disclosing more information than they would otherwise. Analyzing ∼53K product pages from ∼11K shopping websites, we discover 1,818 dark pattern instances, together representing 15 types and 7 broader categories. We examine these dark patterns for deceptive practices, and find 183 websites that engage in such practices."

Dark patterns, present across platforms and devices, work to undermine consumer choice and autonomy — but we currently have no framework for evaluating them. How might we evaluate these deceptive design interfaces to better support consumer empowerment?

Written by Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Christopher Wylie, this book is a detailed account of the way modern marketing technologies were applied in targeted disinformation propaganda campaigns, including those that gave us Trump and Brexit.

Comparative study on the privacy practices of Amazon, Spotify and Netflix in the EU and the US. Also looks at the use of dark patterns.

DETOUR was a bi-partisan bill that aimed to curb manipulative dark pattern behavior by prohibiting the largest online platforms (those with over 100 million monthly active users) from relying on user interfaces that intentionally impair user autonomy, decision-making, or choice.

"Senators Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska) have introduced legislation to ban so-called “dark patterns” tactics designed to trick users..."

Interesting case study from the UK's Behavioural Insights team (aka "nudge unit"). NOT a dark pattern, obviously! But very relevant because the same methodology and techniques are used to create and optimise dark patterns.

This essay shows how cognitive biases and dark pattern are used to manipulate people into disclosing private information. It then explains how current law allows this to continue and proposes a new approach to reign in the phenomenon.

"Online shopping turns your brain against you, but you can fight back."

Tom Scott interviews Harry Brignull about Dark Patterns.

"We show that many services that claim compliance today do not have clear and concise privacy policies. We identify several points in the privacy policies which potentially indicate non-compliance; we term these GDPR vulnerabilities. We identify GDPR vulnerabilities in ten cloud services. Based on our analysis, we propose seven best practices for crafting GDPR privacy policies."

"Gain product design foundations by bringing design processes to light, especially for growing organizations with evolving design systems. Fast-track design work by providing practical examples of patterns for a variety of real-world purposes. Level up the breadth of your skills and understanding by illuminating user experience design concepts, such as usability, accessibility, microcopy, motion design, and information architecture."

After an FTC workshop about the astronomical fees added on to most concert tickets, it is fairly clear that nothing is being done.

A well written introductory article about Dark Patterns. Also provides 10 guidelines for designers to help steer their company away from deceptive practices.

Article on how dark patterns in cookie banners are not legally valid consent mechanisms under the GDPR.

Researchers analyzed 1002 posts from the subreddit '/r/assholedesign' to identify the types of artifact being shared and the interaction purposes that were perceived to be manipulative or unethical.

"my prediction for 2019 - let’s do this like a TV show is this is the year where dark patterns really becomes the kind of thing that we’re really talking a lot about." - Paul Ohm

"Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) introduced a bill that would prohibit large internet platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google from using deceptive design tricks as methods to trick users into handing over their personal data."

"Web interfaces have become quite a character, haven’t they? Self-indulgent, impolite, disrespectful and obsessed with user’s data. In this series of articles, we’re looking into privacy UX patterns to make our interfaces better without leaving conversion considerations behind."

"...a subset of companies purposely make callers jump through hoops with the hope that they’ll simply give up. When this happens, the company saves money on redress costs." (Article summarising the paper "Why Customer Service Frustrates Consumers: Using a Tiered Organizational Structure to Exploit Hassle Costs")

Consumer Reports guide to spotting dark patterns.

"A chat about the dark pattern of “Confirm shaming”, which guilts the user into opting into something. Often seen on an exit intent popup, or a registration form, the words that course you into taking an action that benefits the website owner is getting more extreme."

From dark patterns to data protection: the influence of ux/ui design on user empowerment. This report highlights the ability to use UX as a "power tool" to establish a platform's position.

This paper explores the legal aspects of dark patterns, concluding that while the EU legal framework doesn't need a specific new law, there's a significant lack of awareness and enforcement. The proposed solution is a three-pronged approach involving individuals, companies, and authorities to increase awareness and enforcement.

This research argues that technology designed to extract wealth from consumers, eroding decisional privacy, diminishes consumer welfare. It highlights how platforms use addictive designs and "dark patterns" to manipulate users and gain market power. The article insists that courts must recognize the importance of decisional privacy within antitrust frameworks, arguing that online manipulation prevents consumers from acting rationally and that competitive digital markets would enhance consumer welfare by fostering competition over privacy and disseminating information about dark patterns.

This research reveals the significant impact of dark patterns on consumer behavior, showing how even mild dark patterns can double user sign-ups for dubious services, while aggressive ones can quadruple them. It highlights that decision architecture, not price, drives consumer purchasing decisions when dark patterns are present. The study identifies specific effective dark patterns (hidden information, trick questions, obstruction) and proposes legal frameworks, suggesting dark pattern audits for FTC consent decrees, as many dark patterns appear to violate unfair and deceptive trade laws.

Academic paper on online manipulation and its harms to individuals and social institutions.

A measurement study of showing how the majority (90%) of social media influencers do not disclose their relationships with advertisers to their audience.

A serious book on the topic of technology and ethics, widely considered a "must read".

Richard Thaler argues that "negative nudging" should be called "sludging".

"To tame the, sometimes, harmful power of enormous platforms, we need to reconsider the mathematics of regulation. The law tends to treat the growth of a company linearly, while the power and harm of online activity increases at a much faster rate. We need to scale up the mathematics of regulation to deal with many of the problems of massive digital platforms."

Researchers interviewed student UX designers while they carried out a design task. They found the designers had sensitivity towards user values, but often contradicted these values through dark intentions to persuade users, thereby achieving stakeholder goals.

This short paper described conversations on Twitter using the hashtag #darkpatterns. The authors found that UX practitioners were most likely to share tweets with this hashtag, and that a majority of tweets either mentioned an artifact or “shames” an organization that engages in manipulative UX practices.

Every day, Internet users interact with technologies designed to undermine their privacy. [...] In Privacy’s Blueprint, Woodrow Hartzog pushes back against this state of affairs, arguing that the law should require software and hardware makers to respect privacy in the design of their products."

Gray et al. (2018) analyze 118 practitioner-identified dark patterns and develop a taxonomy, including: nagging (persistent interruptions), obstruction (artificially difficult processes), sneaking (concealed relevant information), interface interference (manipulated UI hierarchy), and forced action (required specific behaviors for access). This work connects practitioner discourse with HCI ethics scholarship and advocates for ethics education in UX practice.

"As designers and developers, we have an obligation to build experiences that are better than the norm. This article explains how unethical design happens, and how to do ethical design through a set of best practices.

You didn’t fill up the rental car with gas? Gotcha! Gas costs $7 a gallon here. Your bank balance fell to $999.99 for one day? Gotcha! That’ll be $12. You miss one payment on that 18-month same-as-cash loan? Gotcha! That’ll be $512 extra. You’re one day late on that electric bill? Gotcha! All your credit cards now have a 29.99% interest rate.

The 2017 Nobel Prize was awarded to Richard H. Thaler "for his contributions to behavioural economics", integrating economics with psychology. Behavioural economics is widely considered to be a useful framework with which to consider Dark Patterns.

A detailed introductory textbook on dark patterns and how to avoid them.

"Cross-disciplinary convergences show the importance of strategic design in building online experiences which can speak volumes about your company and drive - or totally blow up - sales and brand reputation."

Growth teams are often responsible for implementing Dark Patterns. This book gives an insight into how they think. Most if not all of their methods can be used in a perfectly benign manner.

"How users attend to information on a page depends on their tasks and goals, as confirmed by new eyetracking research. Good design promotes efficient scanning. In usability studies, (biased) task formulation may tip users to discover features."

"We discuss some examples as well as the ethics behind implementing them and ask if “light patterns” exist. We talk about how dark patterns go beyond the web and into service design. Should we avoid using dark patterns in our designs? Well, we think yes – so in that case, how?"

The American Psychological Association provides its members with these strict Ethical Principles, and a Code of Conduct.

"This year, it felt like nearly every app and product had embraced some form of dark pattern. Users tweeted about seeing them on Skype, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Office Depot, even America’s Test Kitchen, and yes, LinkedIn–truly a dark pattern early adopter."

Many Customer Service Organizations (CSOs) reflect a tiered, or multi-level, organizational structure, which we argue imposes hassle costs for dissatisfied customers seeking high levels of redress.

A diagram of over 200 Cognitive Biases, grouped by theme.

"It happens to the best of us. After looking closely at a bank statement or cable bill, suddenly a small, unrecognizable charge appears. Fine print sleuthing soon provides the answer—somehow, you accidentally signed up for a service. Whether it was an unnoticed pre-marked checkbox or an offhanded verbal agreement at the end of a long phone call, now a charge arrives each month because naturally the promotion has ended. If the possibility of a refund exists, it’ll be found at the end of 45 minutes of holding music or a week’s worth of angry e-mails."

Understanding how personal data is abused is as important as understanding privacy-by-design. This research introduces "privacy dark strategies" and "privacy dark patterns," providing a framework to collect, document, and analyze these malicious concepts. By investigating the psychological reasons for their effectiveness, the framework aims to foster awareness, support countermeasures, and contribute to the detection and removal of such approaches from the internet.

Harry Brignull, a user-experience consultant in Britain who helps websites and apps develop consumer-friendly features, has a professional bone to pick with sites that seem to maneuver people into signing up for services they might not actually want

"Bad design is everywhere, and its cost is much higher than we think. In this thought-provoking book, authors Jonathan Shariat and Cynthia Savard Saucier explain how poorly designed products can anger, sadden, exclude, and even kill people who use them. The designers responsible certainly didn’t intend harm, so what can you do to avoid making similar mistakes?"

The FTC's enforcement policy statement regarding advertising and promotional messages that are presented as non-commercial content.

This paper introduces the concept of privacy dark strategies and patterns, documenting and analyzing how personal data is maliciously abused. By exploring the psychological effectiveness of these dark strategies, the framework aims to enhance understanding, foster awareness, and support the development of countermeasures. Ultimately, the goal is to detect and remove these harmful approaches, benefiting Internet users.

This book is controversial in that it takes BJ Fogg's psychological model and applies it a new model that facilitates addiction (aka getting "hooked").

"In Technocreep, Dr. Keenan explores some of the most troublesome privacy-invasive scenarios encountered on the web and offers users a number of excellent, practical ideas on how best to protect their privacy and identity online."

Proxemic sensing devices are things like smart billboards that respond to the behaviour and characteristics of the people around them. In this research paper, the authors explore the risks of Dark Patterns in this new type of technology.

"While interest in proxemic interactions has increased over the last few years, it also has a dark side: knowledge of proxemics may (and likely will) be easily exploited to the detriment of the user. In this paper, we offer a critical perspective on proxemic interactions in the form of dark patterns: ways proxemic interactions can be misused."

"When you create an app, a website, or a game, how do you get users, and perhaps more importantly, how do you keep them? Irresistible Apps explains exactly how to do this using a library of 27 motivational design patterns and real-world examples of how they work."

"The Authority has also considered unfair, cumbersome and misleading, the mechanism imposed to consumers in order to select the no-purchase option of the travel insurance policy: in the Ryanair booking process it is necessary to go through the window of Country of Residence and select the option “refuse insurance”, positioned – in the Italian website - between Netherlands and Norway."

"Since Don’t Make Me Think was first published in 2000, hundreds of thousands of Web designers and developers have relied on usability guru Steve Krug’s guide to help them understand the principles of intuitive navigation and information design. Witty, commonsensical, and eminently practical, it’s one of the best-loved and most recommended books on the subject."

Ever had a frustrating experience trying to find something on a website? You probably blamed yourself, but Harry Brignull says the real culprit is "dark patterns" - dirty tricks of web design.

"Approaching persuasive design from the dark side, this book melds psychology, marketing, and design concepts to show why we’re susceptible to certain persuasive techniques."

"Fatigue can have a major impact on an individual's performance and well-being, yet is poorly understood, even within the scientific community. There is no developed theory of its origins or functions, and different types of fatigue (mental, physical, sleepiness) are routinely confused. In the first book dedicated to the systematic treatment of fatigue for over sixty years, Robert Hockey examines its many aspects - social history, neuroscience, energetics, exercise physiology, sleep and clinical implications..."

The authors develop the concept of dark design patterns in games, present examples of such patterns, explore some of the subtleties involved in identifying them, and provide questions that can be asked to help guide in the specification and identification of future Dark Patterns.

A series of articles exploring the psychology of persuasion online.

“You would go to Reddit in the early days, the first couple of months and there’d be tons of … fake users,” Huffman says [...] “Social websites require a little bit of magic to work”

One of the original articles written about Dark Patterns in 2011.

The blog post that started it all - in which Harry Brignull introduces the concept of Dark Patterns and asks for input from the design community.

This paper provides a taxonomy of dark patterns (though they do not use the term) and an analysis of their impact on users. Analysis is based on primary research including a review of thousands of web sites and three surveys.

"Two experiments provided empirical support for the scarcity bias, that is, when the subjective value of a good increases due to the mere fact that it is scarce."

A classic and highly readable book on Behavioural Economics by Dan Ariely. Helped inspire the concept of "Dark Patterns".

A book by Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. It draws on research in psychology and behavioral economics to defend libertarian paternalism and active engineering of choice architecture.

"The findings in this 412-page report are the culmination of three large-scale eyetracking studies spanning 13 years, involving over 500 participants and more than 750 hours of testing session time."