Dark Patterns: Why are they effective? #2

Dark patterns: BaitingIn the part XNUMX of this article, I sowed the first bases of Dark Patterns, so let's see a little more in detail each existing Dark Pattern.
On the site darkpatterns.org, authors Harry Brignull, Skander Garroum, Marc Miquel, Jeremy Rosenberg and James Offer wanted to educate users about Dark Patterns and cite sites that use them. They were then able to identify 14 Dark Patterns and highlight them in a typical user journey.
Dark patterns: journey map
(Translation: Clément Hardouin)
List of 14 Dark Patterns patterns referenced on darkpatterns.org

  1. Bait and Switch
  2. Disguised Ads
  3. Faraway Bill (“Hidden” Bills)
  4. Forced Continuity
  5. Forced Disclosure (Detailed Pedigree or Forced Personal Disclosure)
  6. Friend Spam
  7. Hidden Costs
  8. Misdirection (Misdirection)
  9. Price Comparison Prevention
  10. Privacy Zuckering
  11. Roach Motel (Where is the exit?)
  12. Road Block (Coitus interruptus)
  13. Sneak into Basket (Surprise purchases)
  14. Trick Questions

Why and how do these Dark Patterns actually work?

Dark Patterns work because they are based on our physical and cognitive weaknesses, but also because they are based on our fears and habits.
Let's take a closer look at these 14 models to understand how they work and highlight the human limits on which they are based.

  1. Bait and Switch
    Description :
    The user takes an action, but something different and undesirable happens instead of what he imagined. It's one of the oldest tricks used in books and widely found in nature. Many Dark Patterns implement this trick.
    Explanation :
    The elements that make this dark pattern work are linked to our ability to anticipate the actions we are going to perform, depending on the context in which we find ourselves. Gestaltism highlighted our capacity for anticipation and more particularly our capacity to complete an unfinished form and to see familiar forms where there are none. Another element involved is what can be called the principle of least effort, the analysis carried out by Steve Krug shows a result that people do not read, but scan a page. Finally, our habits on the sites are also called into question, as well as our behavioral models, indeed we acquire reflexes after a long and repeated use, or if the actions to be taken on a site are modified subtly, we risk falling easily. in the trap.
    To avoid this dark-pattern:
    Don't fall into the trap of being alert to even small changes, and don't just rely on your habits.
  1. Disguised Ads
    Description :
    Ads that are disguised as other types of content or navigation with the aim of tricking the user into clicking on them.
    Explanation :
    In this case, everything will depend on the level of disguise of the advertisement. The more subtle the camouflage, the more difficult it will be to identify the offending advertisement. An increasingly popular example of camouflaged advertising and links are clickable ad backgrounds. In this case, the advertisement is not really disguised since it is very apparent, on the other hand the link which is attached to it is not visible and it is easy to click on it inadvertently. There are also hidden advertising links on normal links, which will open the site or an advertisement in a new window.
    To avoid this dark-pattern :
    Here again, attention is required, even if sometimes it is difficult to perceive what is subtly hidden in the bowels of the code of the page. Regarding page openings, I can advise popup blockers and for the rest, you should know as with any other media or any other form of commercial communication, misleading advertising is prohibited on the Internet. The law requires that advertising, “in any form whatsoever, accessible by an online public communication service” be “clearly identified as such. Article 121-1 of the Consumer Code defines as misleading an advertisement that includes false claims or that is likely to mislead. The misleading nature is assessed by reference to the “average consumer” which is a notion of case law.
  1. Faraway Bill (“Hidden” Bills)
    Description :
    Service companies traditionally send their invoices by post once a month, but now and increasingly they put them online, this means that invoices are rarely seen and often forgotten. The way we receive our invoices is logically managed by companies according to the double choice, “paper” or “online” reception. Received by mail, we get detailed information every month. With online invoices, only a few companies send the detailed information, the others claiming possible security problems. Thus, we have to remember our accesses, go through the tedious process of navigating to our latest invoices. With this system, part of the people do not want to bother, therefore, they forget the cost of the service, and are not able to react to additional and unexpected costs.
    Explanation :
    As with disguised advertisements, invoices hidden in the depths of websites are not a human limitation other than the obvious fact that what is buried is not visible and therefore far from our concerns. Human beings do not have a fixed notification system, our short, medium and long term memory is limited. The designers of this kind of site are well aware of this limit and even if they do nothing special to increase this limitation, they do nothing to improve it either.
    To avoid this dark-pattern :
    Use a notification tool or put a sticky note on the refrigerator, or any method likely to compensate for the lack of long-term memory.
  2. Forced Continuity
    Description :
    A user signs up for a free trial on a site, and is asked to enter their credit card details. When the trial version comes to an end, it is automatically charged for the paid version. The user has no reminder and no quick and easy way to cancel this automatic renewal. Sometimes this dark pattern is combined with another one, the “surprise purchase”. This dark pattern used to be called “Silent Credit Card Roll-over”, but it was renamed because the term “Forced continuity” was already popular among marketing teams.
    Explanation :
    Once again, the designers of these user journeys are based on our memory limit and do nothing to make our lives easier. Studies conducted since 1960 indeed show that we are able to retain in the long term only 10% of what we read or hear while we retain 6 times more elements than we see in images.
    To avoid this dark-pattern :
    Here again, we must use methods to increase our memory capacities, so put reminders or post-its on the refrigerator.
  1. Forced Disclosure (Detailed Pedigree or Forced Personal Disclosure)
    Description :
    As a result of a free or inexpensive action, the site asks the user to reveal detailed personal information that is even useless given the action to be performed.
    Explanation :
    The site or brand that offers something for free leverages that offer to get something more important from customers. This technique, called “the foot in the door” by Joule and Beauvois, consists of obtaining an affirmative response to a request that is difficult to refuse for the sole purpose of obtaining an equally affirmative response to a much more expensive request, here request personal information.
    To avoid this dark-pattern :
    An individual will only be effectively manipulated if he believes he is free. It is therefore imperative to assess our freedom at its true value, taking into account the pressure of others. Here you have to be able to assess the value of your personal information versus the freeness of the tool offered.
  1. Friend Spam
    Description :
    A site or game asks for your Twitter or email credentials (for supposedly benign purposes such as finding friends who already use that service), but then uses them to post content or send messages using your account and pretending to be you. This technique is commonly used by viruses, but even some well-known companies use this type of friend spam.
    Explanation :
    The sites in question again use the “foot in the door” technique, this time emphasizing the use of the service and the saving of time to connect, in order to obtain personal information. The use of fast means of connection such as Facebook or Twitter does not allow the user to easily evaluate the personal information that he shares.
    To avoid this dark-pattern :
    We must not underestimate the means of connection offered to save time and once again evaluate at their fair value the services offered against our personal information.
  1. Hidden Costs
    Description :
    A hidden cost occurs when a user arrives at the last step of the checkout process, and discovers that some unexpected charge has appeared. For example delivery costs, taxes, etc.
    Explanation :
    The user is influenced or even manipulated by the site, which relies not only on the user's lack of attention and limited short-term memory.
    To avoid this dark-pattern :
    You must carefully check the contents of the basket before proceeding to payment.
  1. Misdirection (Misdirection)
    Description :
    The user's attention is focused on one element of the page to divert their attention from another.
    Explanation :
    Many studies have shown that our reptilian brain is constantly scanning our environment to assess the dangers or benefits it can bring us. For this reason, advertisements or any other elements that move on the page attract our attention as well as any images showing either danger, food or images of a sexual nature.
    To avoid this dark-pattern :
    Internet users have developed an unconscious mechanism of protection against the visual attacks of advertising banners, we speak of “banner blindness”.
  1. Price Comparison Prevention
    Description :
    The site does not provide the user with a device allowing him to compare several products, even it prevents by all means the comparison with other sites by masking the serial numbers of the products, by giving them specific and unknown names. elsewhere, etc.
  1. © (“Zuckerberg-style” privacy)
    Description :
    “The act of creating deliberately confusing content and interfaces that trick users into sharing more information about themselves than they really want.” (As defined by the EFF – Electronic Frontier Foundation). The term “Zuckering” was suggested in an EFF article by Tim Jones, Facebook's “Evil Interfaces”. It is of course used in reference to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
    Explanation :
    By creating confusing interfaces, the objective is to rely above all on the reflexes of users who, at first glance, may misunderstand what is presented and not look in detail to untangle this confusion. This is particularly the case for the pages concerning the configuration of personal information from Facebook, which has made them sufficiently complex so that people do not pay attention to them and do not go into detail.
    To avoid this dark-pattern :
    It is often necessary to be more careful than normal, on certain sites in particular, and to read carefully everything that is present on the pages.
  1. Roach Motel (Where is the exit?)
    Description :
    The “Roach Motel” category is a broad dark pattern category that encompasses most of the items listed on darkpatterns.org. Put simply, a “Roach Motel” makes it very easy for a user to get into a certain situation, but it's hard to get out of it when they finally realize that this situation is undesirable. Unsubscribing from a newsletter is a well-known example, very easy to subscribe, but much more effort is required to unsubscribe.
  1. Road Block (Coitus interruptus)
    Description :
    When the user's task execution progress is restricted or stopped by something else on the screen.
  1. Sneak into Basket (Surprise purchases)
    Description :
    As the user tries to purchase a specific item, somewhere along the site's shopping journey, an additional item is sneakily added to their shopping cart. This is often caused by the use of a button or the presence of an “opt-out” checkbox on a page.
  1. Trick Questions
    Description :
    The user must answer a question (usually in the middle of the purchase tunnel), if he is not paying attention and takes a quick look, he understands that he is being asked something, but if he reads more attentively, he then realizes that something quite different is being asked of him.

To conclude, we cannot recommend enough to Internet users to be attentive and to read all the information present on a page. We must also learn to forget the decisions made previously. Evaluate each decision independently, even at the risk of appearing inconsistent. Several manipulation techniques are based precisely on this propensity to want to be consistent at all costs. Just because you made a decision earlier doesn't mean it's the right one in all circumstances. Remember that even in the digital age you remain free to click, so surf my friends and proudly carry your flag of free will…
Yannick Bonnieux – UX-Designer @UX-Republic