How to be evil (as a FE dev)
Original email from October 31, 2024
🎃 Happy Halloween! 🎃
While here in Argentina we don't officially celebrate the "spoopy" season, every now and then I like to do a little something to bring some Halloween spirit into it.
So this year, for this newsletter's first Halloween, I thought it would be fun to talk about the dark side of front-end development and web design. The stuff nobody dares to talk about. The big nono's that we shouldn't do but... money and clients force us to create anyway.
I'm talking about when websites aren't nice. When they're manipulative, sneaky, purposely vague, or choose to be evil on purpose to get something out of the user.
"To stop evil, we must know evil"
We'll look at some dark patterns we might find in the wild so we can spot them and, if we're asked to build websites that do these, try to fight back whenever possible. Because yeah, they suck. The less of this that exists, the better. And it's good to be aware of them.
So first things first, let's define the term.
What is a dark pattern?
It's a term coined in 2010 by a guy named Harry Brignull, who is a user experience specialist. He has a website on this topic which I recommend you check out!
Dark patterns are deceptive tricks used in UX design to manipulate or lie to users so they take certain actions they might not have otherwise taken.
Sometimes they're obvious. Other times, they can be pretty subtle. Even something as simple as an already-enabled checkbox when you open a form could be used to trick users into giving consent to something they might not like.
"Fun" examples of dark patterns on the web
Since everything makes a lot more sense with examples, here's a list of things that could ruin your morning:
You signed up for a service previously but have trouble canceling it online due to obstacles. Maybe the unsubscribe button is hidden, small, and hard to click. Or the text on the page makes you feel bad for unsubscribing.
Imagine if, for this newsletter, in case you wanted to unsubscribe, you had to click a button that says: "Yes, I want to stop receiving these emails because I don't want to be exceptional". Something like this would suck because it would mean trying to manipulate you to avoid unsubscribing.
Here's an example (although fair warning, you won't like clicking on it)
Unsubscribe here because I don't want to be exceptional 🙄
Ads that have small or hard-to-see X buttons can cause you to accidentally click on the ad. (This happens a lot in mobile games and shady websites)
A website asks you if you'd like to accept cookies. "Accept all" is one click away but to opt out involves many clicks.
Another related one is when you press the "manage cookies" button, which gives you a list of different options (all of which are pre-checked to be enabled 🤔)
You try purchasing a ticket for a concert and are told on a page that it's a certain price... but on the next screen, the price is much higher as loads of hidden costs start popping up.
You land on a page that offers a very special limited-time offer! They even have a timer on the page. But it turns out that the timer is fake and only starts when you land on the page.
There are thousands of examples like these. Notice that all of these are made with the sole purpose of manipulating or misguiding users. That's the basis of all dark patterns.
Although...
There IS one discussion or topic that's technically not a dark pattern but is prevalent enough and important to bring up.
Is infinite scrolling a dark pattern?
Obviously not in all contexts, but a lot of times when we're talking about social media – it's easy to debate that it sort of is.
Social media aims to keep users on its platforms for as long as humanly possible. This gives those platforms more opportunities to show advertisements or try to sell products to the users. One of the best ways to keep users on is to give them infinite content and make navigating it as easy as just scrolling your thumb.
I liked this quote from this article on infinite scrolling.
We are motivated as humans, to complete a given unit. If we receive a plate of food, for example, we try to finish it. This is something that is called; the Unit Bias (Geier, et al, 2006). We try to finish a quantity of something, to gain fulfillment.
But “The Infinite Scroll” does not have a specific quantity or end. It just keeps going; keeping users from being fulfilled and therefore, keeping them hooked on a platform (Wu, 2017). This impacts the way humans interact with and consume media, making them spend more time than they initially wanted.
Therefore, the creator of this design pattern even feels some guilt for creating the pattern because of its impacting nature on society (Björkman, 2019).
There's so much that has been said about the effect social media has on its users. Spoiler: A lot of it is not positive 😅
But it's important to bring awareness to the evil side of websites, at the very least because we're the ones who create them. We have the power to stop it!!
...
Well... Wait, do we?
I mean, usually, we aren't the decision-makers and have no say in the matter...
And if we don't do it, somebody else will anyway...
And we do need to put food on the table...
...
Ahh screw it! Abuse every single dark pattern and make MILLIONS!!! 🤑
There's no other way! Let's find ways to put ads everywhere!!!
Join the dark side and throw ethics out the window. Everybody is bots on the internet anyway.
Have a spooky scary Halloween! 👻
P.S.
The last part was a joke. Please be ethical and avoid the dark side.
P.P.S
Also, if you want to learn more about dark patterns in gaming (especially mobile games) you can check out
https://www.darkpattern.games/
Search for your favorite micro-transaction game and have the dark tactics made to make you pay just blow your mind.