What You Should Know About Dark UI Patterns and Deception

Dark UI patterns are when web designers are deceptive in their wording. It's very common, even with large companies. Most steer clear of breaking laws, but they are very clever with their wording. Their language does not benefit the user or help them make a decision that is in their best interest with intentionally misleading verbiage.

Dark patterns are everywhere, with language designed to make you give up your privacy rights, subscribe to newsletters or agree to paid for services. Companies may make it too easy to sign up for products that come every month. There's often fine print that says they will charge your credit card each month unless you cancel. It often comes with a tempting price to get you to buy the first product while the company charges you full price for the products you receive each month. Canceling is usually difficult.

Facebook is notorious for invading user's privacy in sneaky ways. The social media network runs an ad network which advertisers can use for targeting specific types of consumers. They want to gather as much information as possible about you, even to the point of following you as you surf the web. If you deactivate your Facebook account, they continue to collect information about you. The word deactivate is deceptive. To have Facebook delete all of your data, you have to delete your account permanently.

Victor Yocco, the author of Design for the Mind: Seven Psychological Principles of Persuasive Design says, "All design has a level of persuasion to it." Web designers often have to choose between doing what your clients want and what they feel is right. In the end, if what the client wants is not illegal, just shady, web designers will do it, especially if they work for an agency. Freelancers can point out misleading language, but the client probably already knows it's misleading. For more information click here https://prototypr.io/post/we-value-your-privacy-at-about-0-50-dark-patterns-in-ui-copy/.