Bringing Dark Patterns Into The Light

With the world available at your fingertips 24 hours a day and access to an estimated 1.13 billion websites available in the public domain, consumers are spoiled for choice. In the modern-day equivalent of the space race, engagement is the name of the game, with entire teams dedicated to creating the most addictive and easy-to-use platforms and applications. However, concerns have been raised recently regarding certain aspects of UI/UX design, and how they guide (and even manipulate) consumer choices, often to the detriment of the consumers.

A dark pattern is a misleading or deceptive piece of UI/UX design that attempts to manipulate or trick the human user in order to get them to act in a manner they may not ordinarily have. For instance, while unsubscribing from a streaming platform or a mailing list, if the 'unsubscribe' button is in a misleading colour or is buried in paragraphs of text, or other offers of retaining the subscription are presented before