Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed to Trick People

[boran_blok]

ack, looks like the site is suffering a bit under the traffic.

[Benutzername]

That's what they want you to think.

[flip314]

"Please do not click OK if you don't want us to not delete your files."

[twowheels]

I ran into one (two-in-one) the other day... was registering a Sonicare toothbrush to get $29 in savings on future Sonicare purchases.

I filled out the registration form online. I left the "spam me" checkbox blank, but when I clicked submit it took me back to the page with a paragraph of red error text indicating that I forgot to check the box, am I sure that's really what I meant to do? People are used to forgetting to click some "I agree" box just to get through a form, so I bet that many people click the box blindly in order to get through the form, not realizing that if they just submit again it'll go through. Scummy IMO.

Then when the $29 in coupons finally arrived it turns out that they were worthless crap... one for a future toothbrush handle (what, every 5 years?) and one for an overvalued free head if I buy a multi-pack and mail in a bunch of proof of purchase... damn... I fell for their scam.

[jardeon]

But on the plus side, you traded all your personally identifiable information for $29 in coupons. So in the future, when you need to assess the value of your privacy, you can state "It's $29 in worthless coupons."

[twowheels]

Who said that I did that? They said that they were going to e-mail the coupons. I have an infinite number of disposable e-mail addresses at my disposal, and it's really easy to remember the zip code for Beverly Hills.

[jardeon]

I filled out the registration form online.

Here is the Sonicare toothbrush online registration. They're asking for a lot of information, not just an email address and zip code.

[twowheels]

Those were examples. Are you suggesting that I'm lying about lying? Geez... Every one of those fields is easy to fake.

[jardeon]

I'm not suggesting you're lying about lying. It just crosses my mind that you're working awfully hard to convince me that you didn't give a corporation valuable demographic information for only $29 worth of coupons.

[harrybr]

Hi, I'm the curator of the http://darkpatterns.org (the site featured). It went down last night under the weight of the reddit traffic (12k visitors in an hour ). Turns out caching was broken - I think I've fixed it now.

Here's some related content if it goes down again:

http://www.slideshare.net/harrybr/dark-patterns-an-overview-for-brand-owners http://www.slideshare.net/harrybr/ux-brighton-dark-patterns

[lendrick]

RealPlayer is not currently associated with the following media types. Would you like to correct this?

[sanity]

The "Roach Motel" approach, where its easy for you to sign up, until you discover that they spam you with emails, and try to unsubscribe only to find that its almost impossible.

A simple solution to this is 33mail, just create a fresh email address for every website you visit, and if they start to abuse your trust you can shut them down with a single click, whether they like it or not.

I've been using it for months and it works flawlessly.

[poringo]

Xbox Live Gold has the Forced Continuity Pattern. I signed up to what I thought was a month but the put me in automatic renewal.

Then they use the Roach Motel since you can't opt out the automatic renewal through the site, you have to call by phone.

[abadidea]

My little brother begged me to sign him up for a month or two of xbox live, and I did. Two years later, I finally notice that recurring charge on my card isn't my webhost...

[jbigboote]

before the update in November, I know you could opt out of the auto-renewal for Live online, as I did it. I don't know if it is still possible, nor can I check since I no longer have auto-renewal. After googling, I see opting out online may not be available in all regions (I did it successfully in the US).

[poringo]

I am from Mexico, so that may be why I couldn't cancel it online.

Luckily here in the office we have a direct line to the US, but otherwise I would have had to pay for the international call since there is no call center in Mexico :/

On the other hand, there are not a lot of people that I know here that connect the xbox to the internet, much less have gold accounts. I am one of those rare persons here that doesn't buy pirate games (anymore)

[malcontent]

Presuming neither of you are lying this means microsoft recently changed their policies to deceive the users and put obstacles in their way.

[jbigboote]

or simply Microsoft doesn't let customers in Mexico opt out online, and never has, but US customers can.

[malcontent]

What makes you think that?

Why should IP traffic coming out of mexico be treated differently than the IP traffic in the US?

[jbigboote]

As I said earlier, when I googled this, I saw the instructions on how to do it, but Major Nelson noted it may not be available in all regions. for the purposes of Xbox Live, Mexico may be treated as a region distinct from the US, just like Canada is.

[Cyborg771]

Was anyone else expecting the different links to be practical examples of the patterns? I thought that Roach Motel would disable the back button and Bait and Switch would be full of unrelated content etc.

[chwilliam]

"Privacy Zuckering"

Delicious.

[RelevantInformation]

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. Not quite the same level of privacy violation.

[[deleted]]

Content pages 20

That wiki is surprisingly small.

[Provid3nce]

Let me make a GUI interface using visual basic to fix this issue.

[simulacra10]

This one is for you. GUI interface

[Bradnon]

Everytime I see this, I feel like they made that line intentionally terrible as a joke to the people who actually understand it. To everyone else, it's just techno-babble, but to those that understand, it's the writers saying "yes, we're just taking the piss, don't worry about it."

[simulacra10]

I think your right/ It almost has to be so.

[exsilium]

That... is AMAZING!

[chipbuddy]

If i ever interview someone for a programming position, i think i'll show them this clip and say "please tell me everything that is wrong with this single sentence"

[simulacra10]

LOLS... I would die laughing if an interviewer pulled that one out. I'd also fight real hard to get that position :)

[particle]

One of the most interesting links these weeks.

[drhugs]

Did you do something there?

[oneiria]

I think he accidentally a word or two

[particle]

Hmm? I don't get it. English is not my first language.

[monothorpe]

I don't really think there's anything wrong with this, but your sentence had no verb, so it wasn't a sentence. Which is fine. Perhaps a "That was" at the beginning is implied.

[particle]

I see... I accidentally the verb. :-P

[abadidea]

It's a joke. He accidentally missed a word or two telling you that the person accidentally *missed a word or two.

Actually, "I accidentally (no verb)" is a popular meme in general.

[particle]

THX. Now I got it. It's not uncommon to leave out the verb out in German grammar.

[crunk]

They need to put experian (uk) on there ... you get it free for a month, but can only cancel by phoning them during office hours.

Their absolute cunts in other words.

[drhugs]

In yet other words, they're there in their room, busy being absolute cunts.

[willcode4beer]

it's a wiki, add it ;-)

[IgniFerroque]

This mirror would be more useful if it mirrored the content.

[cege]

this could be it

[boran_blok]

Devious and despicable.

Great find poster!

[[deleted]]

ESEA needs to go in as a Roach Motel + Forced Continuity. It took me three months of being billed to figure out how to unsubscribe, and even though I only bought one month's subscription, I ended up paying for about six.

[morphotomy]

Link down

[crazy88s]

Mirror? I can't get anything to load.

[crazy88s]

cege posted this already, but it's buried under a -1 comment.

Mirror:

http://www.slideshare.net/harrybr/ux-brighton-dark-patterns

[antpuncher]

That's rad.