Are Dark Patterns Self-destructive for Service Providers?: Revealing Their Impacts on Usability and User Satisfaction

Abstract

“Dark patterns,” which are known as deceptive designs that intentionally induce users to take actions that benefit the company, have been widely adopted, especially in the field of digital marketing. In recent years, there has been a global increase in efforts to address and regulate dark patterns. The main disadvantages of dark patterns are that waste time as well as money and are addictive. However, there are other possible unintended effects on the user experience. In particular, users who are not deceived by dark patterns understand the methods behind them and may experiences stress and frustration when they spend extra time and effort to avoid them. In this study, we focus on users who are not deceived by these dark patterns and on the detriment to usability caused to these users for avoiding dark patterns. Through this usability study using web pages containing dark patterns, we explored the possibility that the cost incurred by avoiding dark patterns may be a factor that undermines trust in a company.