Beware of Dark Patterns!

Dark patterns are increasingly-common user interface elements designed to trick unsuspecting users into selecting an undesirable option, such as installing an unwanted app or signing up to an unwanted service.

Although designers go out of their way to provide a sleek user interface for hooking you in, you may not always find an equivalent feature that lets you undo your mistake afterwards.

A typical example

The following screenshot comes from an installer stub program which the user must run in order to install video editor software downloaded from a popular website:

Most software will require you to accept a license agreement before you are allowed to install. In the above screenshot, the user will probably assume that the green 'accept' button is the only way to go forward with installation.

Reading the screen more carefully reveals that it is actually referring to a different, completely unrelated program; one that alters the user's web browser settings in order to display advertisements. In this case, the correct way to proceed with installing the video editor, without the unwanted extra software, is actually to click the greyed-out 'decline' button.

By accepted user-interface convention (as specified by Microsoft and Apple, among others), a greyed-out button denotes an invalid option that is not able to be selected by the user. Here however, the 'decline' button is a perfectly valid option even though it has been given the cosmetic appearance of a greyed-out button. It has been greyed out purely to deter the user from clicking on it, even though it is probably the preferred option for the majority of savvy users.

Why do dark patterns exist?

Organisations typically have a financial incentive to persuade users to install a particular program or buy a particular service. In the above case, an organisation would receive a commission for each user who clicks the 'accept' button. There are always incentives for a company to improve sales, and deceptive sales tactics are hardly anything new.

Why does it matter?

If you own a computer, you have the right to be in informed control over what runs on it.

Unwanted applications are a security risk. If you have sensitive data on your computer, you probably don't want to allow strange applications to install themselves and assume free-reign over your files.

Unwanted applications deprive you of full use of the computer you paid for. If you perform computationally-intensive tasks, you probably don't want to have your system's performance and reliability compromised by a poorly-coded application you didn't realise you'd installed.

Finally, in an age of email-viruses spread through a combination of shady social-engineering tactics and uninformed users, it really isn't a good look when otherwise-reputable organisations engage in the same tactics.

What to do about dark patterns

Ideally, you should never trust someone with your business, or your web traffic, if they do not treat you – or your computer – with respect.

If you stumble across a dark pattern on a website you're using (for example, a website that tries to trick you into adding unwanted items to your order, or one that doesn't tell you what the 'catch' is until you've already invested time in filling out your details), stop using that website and find an alternative.

If you find a dark pattern in an app you've downloaded, immediately delete the app from your computer. If the app is distributed by a reputable organisation, consider sending an email to the distributor to let them know what is going on.

More information

There's an excellent guide to dark patterns, along with a collection of examples, over at darkpatterns.org.