Have you ever filled in a form online and, before clicking the send button, you had to negotiate a check box with a label that reads something like this:

Please uncheck the box if you don’t want us to exclude your contact details from our mailing list opt-out. We won’t pass your contact details on to selected partners if you haven’t left the opt-out check box unchecked.

It takes a fair bit of unravelling to understand the implications of checking, or un-checking the box. The site owner is counting on you not taking the time to read it thoroughly and hopefully tricking you into signing up for regular emails both from the site and from anybody they sell their mailing list to (“selected partners” – usually selected by the criteria of having paid for the list).

This is what is called a dark pattern, it’s a design pattern which is motivated by the intention to trick or trap the user, and not to help them in any way. A collection of these patterns, along with specific examples can be found over at the Dark Patterns wiki. The site is not intended to be a reference for evil web designers, quite the opposite in fact. In their own words:

The purpose of this pattern library is to “name and shame” Dark Patterns and the companies that use them.

• For consumers, forewarned is fore-armed.
• For brand-owners, the bad-press associated with being named as an offender should discourage usage.
• For designers, this site provides ammunition to refuse unethical requests by our clients / bosses. (e.g. “I won’t implement opt-out defaults for the insurance upsells because that practice is considered unethical and it will get you unwanted bad press.”)

The following presentation gives a few examples and some evidence about why these tricks are a bad idea – something I think should be given more prominence in the wiki.

What are your thoughts on dark patterns? Have you ever been forced to implement something that seemed unethical? (I know I have). If you’ve spotted any dark patterns yourself, let me know or add them to the wiki and help in the fight against the dark-side.

Dark Patterns.