1.
Dark Patterns through
the lens of Accessibility
Presented at
A11yCampBay 2019
by @JoeDevon

2.
What are
Dark
Patterns?
“A user interface
that has been
carefully crafted to
trick users into
doing things”
—DarkPatterns.org

3.
A little video example
I came across while researching Dark Patterns

4.
Joe Devon’s
Background

5.
Agenda:
1. Background of Dark Patterns research
2. Show examples
3. Hear YOUR experiences with each pattern
from #a11y perspective

6.
History of
Dark Patterns
Harry Brignull (@harrybr)
coined the term
Brignull started a website,
DarkPatterns.org dedicated
to popularizing the Pattern
Library
Identified12 Dark Patterns
denoted on the next slide

7.
Brignull’s 12
Dark Patterns
1. Bait and Switch
2. Confirmshaming
3. Disguised Ads
4. Forced Continuity
5. Friend Spam
6. Hidden Costs
7. Misdirection
8. Price Comparison Prevention
9. Roach Motel
10.Sneak into Basket
11.Trick Questions
12.Privacy Zuckering

8.
Something is missing
Anything bother you about this list?
The last Dark Pattern was personal
The categorization is lacking robustness

9.
Wikipedia entry is light

10.
Onto Newspapers.com

11.
Archive.org had the answer

12.
Be a good Citizen, update Wikipedia

13.
Good ole
Reddit

14.
And finally
found some
academics
on it at UXP2

15.
Time to be a good Citizen again, Wikidata
this time

16.
Finally have a robust framework: Purdue

17.
Purdue’s Strategy #1: Nagging
“Redirection of
expected
functionality that
persists beyond
one or more
interactions”

18.
Map Service Doozy
You are nagged constantly to enable
location services

19.
Map Service Doozy
Continued
NOW you can select “Don’t show
again”

20.
Music Service Example
“Music service
requires you to opt
out of sharing
EVERY 6 HOURS”

21.
Brignull’s
Confirm
Shaming
“The act of guilting
the user into
opting in…The
option to decline is
worded in such a
way as to shame
the user into
compliance”

22.
Electronics
Co. shames
users into
opting in

23.
Magazine
shames user
into
subscribing

24.
Last thoughts on Strategy #1: Nagging?
Do you have an example of Purdue’s
Nagging Strategy you want to share?

25.
Purdue Strategy #2: Obstruction
“Making a process
more difficult than it
needs to be, with the
intent of dissuading
certain action(s)”

26.
Dropdown
Hijacking by
Survey
Company

27.
Dropdown
Hijacking –
Where did
the
dropdown
go?

28.
Brignull’s
Roach Motel
“The design makes
it very easy for you
to get into a
certain situation,
but then makes it
hard for you to get
out of it (e.g. a
subscription)”

29.
There is no
way to
unsubscribe
from this
Streaming
Sports channel

30.
If you want to
close an
account w/
this postal
service
provider you
must call

31.
Brignull’s
Forced
Continuity
“When your free trial
with a service comes
to an end and your
credit card silently
starts getting
charged without any
warning. You are
then not given an
easy way to cancel
the automatic
renewal”

32.
Streaming
Service makes
it hard to
unsubscribe
after 30 day
trial

33.
Brignull’s
Price
Comparison
Prevention
“The retailer makes
it hard for you to
compare the price
of an item with
another item, so
you cannot make
an informed
decision”

34.
Unclear what
features each
tier offers. Free
tier lets you
browse only.
Useless w/o
paid account

35.
Last thoughts on Strategy #2: Obstruction?
Do you have an example of Purdue’s
Obstruction Strategy you want to share?

36.
Purdue’s Strategy #3: Sneaking
“Attempting to hide,
disguise, or delay
the divulging of
information that is
relevant to the
user”

37.
Brignull’s
Sneak Into
Basket
“You attempt to
purchase something,
but somewhere in
the purchasing
journey the site
sneaks an additional
item into your basket,
often through the
use of an opt-out
radio button or
checkbox on a prior
page”

38.
When you
purchase one
thing, the
fine print
auto signs
you up for
membership

39.
Brignull’s Bait
& Switch
“The user sets out
to do one thing,
but a different,
undesirable thing
happens instead”

40.
Operating
System tricks
users into
upgrading I

41.
Operating
System tricks
users into
upgrading II

42.
Operating
System tricks
users into
upgrading III

43.
Brignull’s
Hidden Costs
“You get to the last
step of the
checkout process,
only to discover
some unexpected
charges have
appeared, e.g.
delivery charges,
tax, etc”

44.
Travel site
advertises
rates 250%
lower than
total price!

45.
Brignull’s
Misdirection
“The design
purposefully
focuses your
attention on one
thing in order to
distract your
attention from
another”

46.
Total price
appears to be
327, the taxes
& service
charge are
obscured

47.
Last thoughts on Strategy #3: Sneaking?
Do you have an example of Purdue’s
Sneaking Strategy you want to share?

48.
Purdue’s Strategy #4: Interface Interference
“Manipulation of
the user interface
that privileges
certain actions
over others”

49.
Brignull’s
Trick
Questions
“You respond to a
question, which,
when glanced
upon quickly
appears to ask one
thing, but if read
carefully, asks
another thing
entirely.”

50.
Double
negative to
trick you into
subscribing

51.
Brignull’s
Disguised
Ads
“Adverts that are
disguised as other
kinds of content or
navigation, in
order to get you to
click on them”

52.
Search
Engine
makes paid
ads look like
search results

53.
Tiny X

54.
Tricky X

55.
Dropdown confusion

56.
Change default search engine on software upgrade

57.
Unlabeled unsubscribe

58.
Newspaper Example spans 4 strategies!

59.
Newspaper Example spans 4 categories!

60.
Newspaper Example FAQ

61.
Newspaper Example finally a price: $7/wk

62.
Last thoughts on #4: Interface Interference?
Do you have an example of Purdue’s
Interface Interference Strategy you want to
share?

63.
Purdue #5: Forced Action
“Requiring the user to perform a
certain action to access (or
continue to access) certain
functionality”

64.
Brignull’s
Friend Spam
“The product asks for
your email or social
media permissions
under the pretense it will
be used for a desirable
outcome (e.g. finding
friends), but then spams
all your contacts in a
message that claims to
be from you”

65.
Users
pressured to
invite friends
to access
certain
features

66.
Brignull’s
Privacy
Zuckering
“You are tricked
into publicly
sharing more
information about
yourself than you
really intended to.
Named after
Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg”

67.
Privacy Zuckering Example
Tricked into
sharing health
data

68.
Example Continued
Tricked into
sharing health
data

69.
Case Study:
Canadian
Bank

70.
Case Study
continued:
Pages of
Forced Ads

71.
Case Study
continued:
Opt-out not
styled like a
button

72.
Last thoughts on Strategy #5: Forced Action?
Do you have an example of Purdue’s Forced
Action Strategy you want to share?

73.
More Research needed
I suggest contacting the researchers and urging them
to include Accessibility as a separate category of
research
Children are another category deserving of attention,
as they are more likely to be impacted by Dark
Patterns
Anyone have more to add on the Research Angle?

74.
Thank you!
Any questions?