What are dark patterns & why are they banned?
There aren’t enough containers to store my groceries, let me order some online, or it’s been so many days I have not purchased a new outfit for myself, let me check what’s trending. Or if there isn’t curd at home, let me quickly order it online. sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Online ordering has become so common these days that we don’t even realise when it become a part of our day-to-day life & there is hardly anything that you won’t find online.
Why is it so addictive?
We all are aware that shopping makes us feel happy & many times helps us get over sadness. We all crave gratification & instant reward feeling, shopping releases happy chemicals in our brain known as endorphins & dopamine & hence we feel good while shopping, however, many times we feel out of control & ignore our financial limits.
People who are into compulsive buying most of the time buy things that are not useful to them or not needed at all & often go into financial debt.
Online shopping has seen a rapid growth since 2019–2022. A lot of people switched to online shopping during the pandemic & never looked back.
Of course, online shopping is a great option to buy things at our convenience & without leaving our homes or to order things on the go, at the same time it also has certain disadvantages, like getting addicted to it or falling for the marketing gimmicks & losing self-control & getting into debts. One of the reasons why we fall for such marketing tactics is the dark patterns that are being used. So let’s take a quick look at it.
Let’s look at some of the Dark Patterns & the reason they got banned.
Manipulating the users into doing something that they originally did not intend to do or making them behave in a certain way is called Dark Pattern.
A couple of months ago, we read that the government banned 13 deceptive dark patterns on e-commerce in India, under guidelines by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA).
The move intends to protect customer’s interests.
Creating False Urgency:
For example, while booking a room on a website/app or while shopping for clothes/products, we see notes like ‘Only 1 room left’ or ‘Only 2 left in stock’ this makes users make a haste decision & they buy the product because of the FOMO factor. This is called creating false urgency.
Basket Sneaking:
Including additional items in the cart, like charity, donation, extra services, etc. without the user’s consent is Basket Sneaking.
Forced Action:
When the application forces you into taking an action without which you cannot move ahead or which you cannot skip is a forced action.
Subscription Trap:
When a user buys a service, subscribes, or creates an account, it must be easy for them to delete the account as well. Many applications hide these actions in such a way that it is difficult for the user to find them & exit from the system.
Drip Pricing:
A simple example would be while ordering food from any food ordering app. Here the final price is higher than the initial price that was displayed & the additional charges are not revealed initially. It is like drip irrigation, adding small amounts which eventually adds up to a larger amount.
Interface Interference:
Highlighting one option & not showing the other option clearly to manipulate the user into taking a certain action.
Bait & Switch:
This is considered an unethical practice in sales, where the seller advertises an appealing offer to sell a product but instead sells a low-quality or defective product.
Disguised Advertisement:
Placing an advertisement where it blends with the rest of the interface, basically disguises the advertisement & tricking the customers into clicking it.
Confirm Shaming:
Making the user feel guilty or shaming the user for not opting for their service or for not donating etc. is considered as confirm shaming.
Nagging:
Here the user is repeatedly interrupted by forms, requests, permissions, etc. unless they permit such actions, which will cause some commercial gains to the company.
Tricky Questions:
Asking tricky & confusing questions or using confusing language that misguides the user into taking a specific action or response.
SaaS Billing:
This means the process of collecting payment from the user regularly in a Software-as-a-service (Sass) model.
Rogue Malware:
Tricking the user into believing there is a virus on their system & convincing them to click on a link for removal of the virus that installs it.
No doubt, online shopping is very convenient, however, the best option would be to find the right balance between online & offline shopping to enjoy the benefits of both worlds.
Our UX design studio, yuj wholeheartedly supports the government’s decision to ban these dark pattern websites, as we believe this could mark the much-needed shift towards more ethical design practices.
Article By: Aditi Nilangekar
