‘Dark Patterns’ are exploiting online shoppers. Here’s how
The majority of online buyers continue to encounter dark patterns, which lead to financial losses, according to customer research platform Dovetail.
Dovetail surveyed 1000 e-commerce and social media users aged between 18 and 54 and found that over 40 per cent faced unplanned financial consequences due to dark design patterns, including clicking ‘yes’ to buy more costly items when cheaper options were made insufficiently visible, or being rushed through purchases with prompts.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) defines dark patterns as “the design of user interfaces intended to confuse users, make it difficult for users to express their actual preferences, or manipulate users into taking certain actions.”
Nearly 63 per cent of the respondents said they had to actively remove supplementary products or services that were added automatically during checkout.
A further 62 per cent responded that they had been intentionally led by designs such as brightly-coloured buttons to more expensive items during their online shopping.
The survey showed that dark patterns have made 56 per cent of the respondents lose trust in a website or social media platform and 43 per cent stop purchasing from an online store.
“We’re on a mission to empower designers, call out dark design, and stand up for the customer through informed design,” said Dovetail founder and CEO Benjamin Humphrey.
“Deceptive dark design patterns are nothing new, but the problem is that dark design is infinitely more clever as the stakes get higher: what was once a nuisance on an off-the-beaten-track user experience, is now a gamble on privacy, data sharing, and high-stakes unintended financial consequences.”
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