Deceptive by Design
What are Dark Patterns?
The term “dark patterns” (also known as “deceptive design” or “malignant design”) refers to a set of strategies that digital marketing and user experience (UX) design experts deploy in website development and design.1 Dark patterns are purposefully crafted design choices that lead users to make unintentional (and often malicious) decisions that go against their own interests.
How did these techniques become ubiquitous, and where do they come from? This website profiles several popular dark pattern techniques that are frequently deployed in e-commerce. We examine these techniques in three ways: their historical context, interactive examples, and an area for you to explore how these patterns work together to drive our decision-making. Together, these approaches will help you understand the purpose behind these design decisions as well as recognize them in your everyday life.
Historical Context
We explore their deployment both online and offline, providing a rich historical context designed to help you better understand how and why these techniques work.
Interactive Examples
We offer interactive examples that allow you to examine how the design strategies operate in real time. These examples can help you identify dark patterns in the future.
E-Commerce Shop
We built a mini e-commerce shop where you explore how these patterns—from reviews to sales, hidden fees, and timers—work in concert to influence our decision.