Examples of Dark Design Patterns
Flavio Lamenza (via Mark Frauenfelder):
This add in a mobile app makes you think there is a dust particle on your screen, making you tap on it.
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This ad in Snapchat makes you think there is a strand of hair on your screen, making you tap on it.
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Tetris wants to give you high quality advertising…
But the fact that the button to reject the new Terms of Service isn’t even a button, it’s a tiny “see your options” hyperlink, shows how badly Facebook wants to avoid you closing your account.
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I requested Facebook actually show us what was on the other side of that tiny “see your options” link and this is what we got. First, Facebook doesn’t mention its temporary deactivation option, just the scary permanent delete option. Facebook recommends downloading your data before deleting your account, which you should. But the fact that you’ll have to wait (often a few hours) before you can download your data could push users to delay deletion and perhaps never resume. And only if you keep scrolling do you get to another tiny “I’m ready to delete my account” hyperlink instead of a real button.
Via John Gruber:
Not only is it a tiny hyperlink instead of a button, the link is just a few pixels above the big “I ACCEPT” button.
