What’s In a Name?

Unpacking Dark Patterns versus Deceptive Design

caroline sinders
6 min readJun 17, 2022

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Photo: Florian Olivo / Unsplash

Have you heard of a dark pattern before? If you use the Internet, you’ve probably encountered one.

Have you ever unsubscribed from an email listserv just to get the same email the next week? You probably encountered a dark pattern. If you’ve ever seen countdown clocks on e-commerce platforms or tried to purchase a plane ticket only to have numerous confusing fees pop up, those are dark patterns too. Or, if you live in the EU, and have tried to read an online blog in the past few years, you’ve probably encountered a GDPR cookie banner with a dark pattern (when GDPR was first rolled out, it was riddled with them). All of these examples are ‘dark patterns’.

One of the things I do, aside from writing here, and making art, is run a human rights design and research lab. One of our research projects is on dark patterns and their impacts on policy, technology, and consumers. Over the next few months, some of my articles in this column will be on dark patterns. And one of the first topics I want to address is ‘should dark patterns even be called dark patterns?’

Harry Brignull, a designer, researcher and creator of the term dark patterns, defines dark patterns as “ a manipulative or deceptive trick in software that gets users to complete an action that they would not otherwise have done, if they had understood it or had a choice at the time.” The term’ dark patterns’ was coined back in 2010, when conversations on decolonisation and identity politics were not where they are today. Calling ‘bad’ or harmful design ‘dark’ today feels really not right; it feels racist and a bit colonialistic. Organizations like the Web Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation, along with other designers have called out the phrase ‘dark patterns’ as being harmful, too. Brignull, the creator of the terms, now calls dark patterns ‘deceptive design.’

But is deceptive design the right term? I spoke to a few experts, and the consensus is…well maybe?

What is the issue with deceptive design as a name? To explore this question, I spoke to Dr Jennifer King, the Privacy and Data Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, about dark patterns or deceptive design. King pointed out a few issues…

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caroline sinders

Machine Learning Designer and Researcher | Artist | Instigator| online harassment researcher, fellow digital Harvard Kennedy School