The answer is yes, you do! Yet you would probably be hard pressed to say what they are… In reality, you know them to your cost.
“Dark patterns” are all those traps, legally used by internet companies, that regularly complicate your user experience, leading you to click where you did not want to go, or to increase the cost of your “basket” without necessarily being aware of it.
How many newsletters have you received that you never signed up for?
How many times have you clicked on a catchy headline such as: “Lose 5 kilos effortlessly while you sleep”, or “When you find out who Sharon Stone’s new husband is, you’ll be shocked”?
How many times have you taken out an insurance policy costing a few euros, or a premium account, without even realising it, simply because you did not untick a box?
The aim of “dark patterns” is to increase the collection of your data, to generate clicks, to get you to sign up for offers, and to increase the cost of your “basket”.
You can consult a very enlightening list of the main “dark patterns” on the following blog: https://www.novaway.fr/blog/ui-ux-design/dark-pattern-experience-utilisateur. Here are a few examples… among those that struck a chord with me, because I have already been caught out!
- Forced Continuity: this is the perpetuation of a subscription. One day you were promised free delivery within 24 hours and you said yes! Because you were in a hurry, or because you weren’t paying attention. A month later, on the same site, deliveries are still free, but for that you are paying a subscription, and you have completely forgotten that you signed up of your own free will. It is bad both for our wallet and for our self-esteem…
- Friend spams: these are contact spams. One day you wanted to sign up to a site, most often a social or professional network. Under the pretext of “improving your user experience”, the site asked to be able to synchronise your contacts. Because you did not understand what it was about or because you clicked by mistake, the site sent a message in your name to all your contacts, for example an invitation to “become friends” or to be sponsored. Of course, among your contacts there is also your line manager, your daughter’s French teacher, or your ex whom you no longer speak to… You found yourself very embarrassed!
- Hidden costs: these are the hidden costs. One day you wanted to rent a lovely little pied-à-terre by the sea. It was perfect, available and not too expensive. But at the last step of the process, mandatory fees were added for cleaning, insurance, bed linen, booking, service… And since you had already daydreamed about your holiday and the sandcastles you could build on the fine sandy beach, you accepted everything… with the unpleasant feeling of having been had a little all the same!
- Roach motel: this is a bit like the Eagles’ Hotel California, a place you can never leave! One day, out of weakness or excess enthusiasm, you signed up to one site or another, some newsletter or other – not the 3-6-9-12 one, which is anything but ordinary and doesn’t clutter your inbox so often ;-). Today you would like to unsubscribe to stop the daily flow of mailings. Only it is anything but simple! You found very easily where to sign up, but you cannot find how to unsubscribe at all… “Relax, said the nightman, we are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!” Let’s be honest, in the song it was chilling; here it is mostly very, very annoying!
Conclusion: to make the most of the net, it is better to be in full possession of your powers of concentration. The same sites that keep us awake late at night in front of our computers take advantage of our lapses in attention to trap us: begone, dark patterns!
Lyrics from the song “Hotel California” by the Eagles.
Medical director of the André Boulloche Day Hospital for Children in Paris, she works more particularly on the relationships young people have with screens, communication with young children, and autism.
