Dark Patterns and how it affects the elderly
Part 1 — Design Research & Iceberg Analysis
What exactly are Dark Patterns?
Have you ever been confused while availing service on your mobile/laptop because it always kept opening other tabs? Like downloading software or a song from the first search result that came up on google (because who doesn’t trust Google?). Ever noticed that website where you get multiple download buttons to download one single file? Like each one is trying to say “Please choose me. I am the right one”. And when you click on any of those buttons, it takes you to an advertisement that is not related to your search at all. Such tricks used in websites and apps that make you do things that you didn’t mean to, like clicking on advertisements or buying a subscription, are called Dark Patterns.
Now that you know how dark patterns work and how it affects our experience while using the internet, let’s think about the people who were born before the internet came into our lives. If dark patterns can make our experience unsatisfactory, think about the elderly who are not used to the internet and have a hard time trying to avail of any service using the internet.
Why the elderly?
After a few rounds of discussion back and forth with my mentors, I decided to narrow my topic to how dark patterns play a very vital role in creating a user experience for the mature or older generation. I found this topic particularly interesting because it is such a large scale problem and yet it’s not addressed by any company to this day.
Design Research — Primary & Secondary
I first started with visual research to study the characteristics of different dark patterns by looking at the existing examples. I picked up seven out of all twelve existing dark patterns and studied them to find similarities between how they are executed on the website/app. The dark patterns I studied are mentioned here with a brief explanation (referred from the website www.darkpatterns.org):
- Bait and Switch: The user sets out to do one thing, but a different, undesirable thing happens instead.
- 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.
- 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).
- Disguised Ads: Adverts that are disguised as other kinds of content or navigation, in order to get you to click on them.
- Guilt Tripper: Guilt tripper/Confirmshaming is the act of guilting the user into opting into something.
- Forced Continuity: When your free trial with a service comes to an end and your credit card silently starts getting charged without any warning.
- Scaremongering: Some companies play on this scenario of ‘what could happen’, and strike fear into their website visitors.
After the secondary research, I did participatory research with six participants where I gave them seven tasks each and observed their activity while they completed each task. I also interviewed them after every task to understand the after-effects of the patterns on their perception about that website/app.
Research Insights
The insights from both primary and secondary research were:
- Bait and switch, Disguised Ads, and Hidden Costs are the most irritating dark pattern for the user.
- The user takes the blame on himself for not being able to achieve the task.
- Green and blue colors are perceived as correct while red and orange as dangerous.
- Users are very uncomfortable sharing their card details with anyone.
- Users are concerned about saving money.
- Users don’t understand the difference between multiple similar-looking buttons.
- The user always needs assistance while taking buying decisions.
To take the systems approach towards the topic and dive deeper into the problem, my mentors asked me to read about the Iceberg Model and how to analyze the situation using it. As I dug deeper into the problem, the connections and tensions started to become clear patterns.
Iceberg Model Analysis
To go by the definition on Google:
The iceberg model is a systems thinking tool designed to help an individual or group discover the patterns of behavior, supporting structures, and mental models that underlie a particular event.
Applying the iceberg model, to understand the various level of abstraction to a situation, at first I devised multiple observable events which led me to the underlying patterns that generated those events in the first place. Then I moved on to the supporting structures which cause the patterns to occur and then ultimately to the mental model that is creating those structures.
Keeping in mind the insights of the research, I arrived at three different events related to the topic and then applied the systems approach to it using the Iceberg model.
Event 01: The user couldn’t download songs for the festival Holi.
This event comes under the Bait and Switch dark pattern. While doing the analysis I realized the major structure that caused this event is that it’s a voluntary decision taken by the organization/host for money which came from the mental model that the more money you have, the more successful you are.
Event 02: User paid extra money for flight booking
This event can be categorized under the Hidden Cost dark pattern. The major pattern I noticed here was that the extra amount was added at the last stage of the payment cycle. The structure that followed this pattern was that the UI team keeps the visibility of the added charges low so that the user doesn’t notice it (it’s all intentional BTW!). Again the same mental model was in play here as well — the more money you have, the more successful you are.
In this case, the user starts blaming himself for the mistake and hence tries to avoid further interactions to avail that service or takes assistance from a family member.
Event 03: User was going to download the software but something else got downloaded.
The third and final event can be categorized under the Disguised Ads dark pattern. Companies nowadays have misguiding ads on their websites which sometimes are just a very flashy download button in the middle of the website content. The structure causing it is again all intentional. One of the structures playing a very important role here is that the advertisement space is being misused by the advertisers and there are no protocols to test and remove it.
The supporting mental model for this structure is that users think the advertisement can only be for a product or service but in this case, the company is using a button (which is linked to an advertisement) to confuse the user. Every click gives money to the company and views to the advertiser which again comes from the same mental model that money means success.
Iceberg Model Analysis Insights
The Iceberg model analysis gave me a deeper and more extensive insight into the situation. It was not only user-centric but also included the structure part which never came up while doing the research. The insights that came up using the Iceberg Model are:
- The user’s trust for Google is being misused in all dark patterns.
- Dark patterns are introduced in a website/app by tweaking UX/UI strategies and creating tricks and baits.
- The major mental model in play was that more the money, more the success even if the user is not satisfied.
- Users are considered innocent and dumb while making such strategies.
- There is a need for a strong set of rules and regulations to stop such patterns on the structure level.
- Users, in this case elderly, blame themselves for the consequences of dark patterns and avoid doing it again.
What’s next?
The next step is to list all the stakeholders for this situation under the label primary and secondary and classify them on the basis of their level of interest or influence on the topic. Then I will look at the set of requirements that might be a part of the solution to satisfy all the major stakeholders.
