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Towards the Identification of Dark Patterns: An Analysis Based on End-User Reactions

Published: 27 December 2020 Publication History

Abstract

A dark pattern is a user interface that purposefully deceives users for the benefit of the business by influencing their decision making process. The objectives of this research paper are three-fold. The first objective is to determine the difference in the susceptibility of the users to the different types of dark patterns. The second is to identify the underlying factors that make users victims of the different types of dark patterns. The third objective is to identify the difference in the impact on the users, caused by the least identified and the most identified dark pattern. This paper presents five elements that play an important role in the identification of dark patterns by the users, even if they are not completely aware of the unethical intentions behind the design. In addition to that, a taxonomy is formed with the factors that trigger the users towards dark patterns. Strong correlations and associations between these five elements and the user's ability to identify dark patterns are found. It was also found that the correlations between the elements differ from the type of dark pattern in consideration. This paper helps in understanding the factors that influence the users to become victims of dark patterns and the difference in the impact of the different types of dark patterns on the user. The variables and factors of identification determined in this research can benefit the HCI community to understand the adverse effects of dark patterns on usability.

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  • (2024)A Systematic Approach for A Reliable Detection of Deceptive Design Patterns Through Measurable HCI FeaturesProceedings of the 2024 European Symposium on Usable Security10.1145/3688459.3688475(290-308)Online publication date: 30-Sep-2024
  • (2024)"What a stupid way to do business": Towards an Understanding of Older Adults' Perceptions of Deceptive Patterns and Ways to Develop ResistanceProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36771138:CHI PLAY(1-31)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
  • (2024)From Motivating to Manipulative: The Use of Deceptive Design in a Game's Free-to-Play TransitionProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770748:CHI PLAY(1-31)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
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cover image ACM Other conferences
IndiaHCI '20: Proceedings of the 11th Indian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
November 2020
129 pages
ISBN:9781450389440
DOI:10.1145/3429290
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 27 December 2020

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Author Tags

  1. Dark patterns
  2. Deceptive design
  3. Persuasive design
  4. Quantitative Study
  5. UX design
  6. User Interfaces

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IndiaHCI 2020

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Overall Acceptance Rate 33 of 93 submissions, 35%

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Cited By

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  • (2024)A Systematic Approach for A Reliable Detection of Deceptive Design Patterns Through Measurable HCI FeaturesProceedings of the 2024 European Symposium on Usable Security10.1145/3688459.3688475(290-308)Online publication date: 30-Sep-2024
  • (2024)"What a stupid way to do business": Towards an Understanding of Older Adults' Perceptions of Deceptive Patterns and Ways to Develop ResistanceProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36771138:CHI PLAY(1-31)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
  • (2024)From Motivating to Manipulative: The Use of Deceptive Design in a Game's Free-to-Play TransitionProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36770748:CHI PLAY(1-31)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Computer-based Deceptive Game Design in Commercial Virtual Reality Games: A Preliminary InvestigationCompanion Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3665463.3678820(109-123)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2024
  • (2024)What Makes XR Dark? Examining Emerging Dark Patterns in Augmented and Virtual Reality through Expert Co-DesignACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/366034031:3(1-39)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2024
  • (2024)GUI Behaviors to Minimize Pointing-Based Interaction InterferencesACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/366033831:3(1-34)Online publication date: 30-Aug-2024
  • (2024)Deceived by Immersion: A Systematic Analysis of Deceptive Design in Extended RealityACM Computing Surveys10.1145/365994556:10(1-25)Online publication date: 17-Apr-2024
  • (2024)From Awareness to Action: Exploring End-User Empowerment Interventions for Dark Patterns in UXProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373368:CSCW1(1-41)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
  • (2024)Deceptive, Disruptive, No Big Deal: Japanese People React to Simulated Dark Commercial PatternsExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3651099(1-8)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
  • (2024)Fighting Malicious Designs: Towards Visual Countermeasures Against Dark PatternsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642661(1-13)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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