Understanding the Dark Side of Website Design

Unlike dark design websites with dark backgrounds, dark designs are websites, apps and consumer products that have deceptive design. We've all seen deceptive food packaging, where it appears that you're getting a large wrapped sandwich, only to discover that the middle of the sandwich, the part under the label, isn't there. You receive both sandwich ends, but put together, the wrap is significantly small than the packaging suggested.

There are websites with dark designs that are bright and colorful, however, they have deceptive elements. Designers use their knowledge of human psychology to trick users into taking an action. Paywalls are a good example; people pay to see the content, which they later find out was scraped from other free websites.

Have you ever landed on a website and were greeted with a large popup with a barely visible way to close the ad? Frustrated individuals eventually add their email to a mailing list just so they can see the website's content.

Recurring payments for unwanted merchandise is another one of the dark designs that keep consumer agencies busy. A great deal comes with small print that says another, more expensive, product will arrive each month, unless you specifically cancel the service. Canceling instructions are buried within the website's small print; they usually involve calling a phone number and waiting on hold for an hour.

Imagine that you are a web designer and a client asks you to place barely visible boxes on the checkout page of the site allowing a person out out of insurance for a product. Do you do it? It's not illegal, just sneaky. It's a question that web designers often wrestle with all of the time. You've already do much of the designing and been paid for it; who is the designer to say that many people will be tricked into believing the insurance is mandatory. You can point out that the client will get a number of chargebacks and complaints or you can just comply with the client's wishes. What would you do? For more information click here https://uxdesign.cc/stop-calling-these-dark-design-patterns-or-dark-ux-these-are-simply-asshole-designs-bb02df378ba.