Design ethics in the design process: How to prevent dark patterns?
In 2020, the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma” was in the spotlight. This film was about the tech experts sounding the alarm on the dangerous human impact of social networking. The Social Dilemma focuses on how big social media companies, especially Facebook, manipulate users by using algorithms that encourage addiction to their platforms. It also shows how the platform collects personal data and targets users through advertising. Facebook, however, refuted the claim. They argued that the documentary had shown only a selective view of the technology. They said the documentary gave a distorted view of the algorithms by only showing the content a user will agree with. In fact, Facebook argued the algorithms just kept things “relevant and useful” for the user’s convenience. Furthermore, they claimed that they have not instructed product teams to increase the user’s amount of time spent on the platform.
The repercussions of this documentary were enormous. Many people have deleted social media accounts and many companies have announced policies on privacy and data usage. Design ethics has also been an issue among designers. On April 29, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission(FTC) held a virtual workshop called “Bringing Dark Patterns to Light: An FTC Workshop”. On this day, researchers, legal experts, consumer advocates, and industry experts gathered to talk about what dark patterns are and how they affect consumers and markets. In April, Apple began using pop-ups asking users if they would like to share their data with third parties. This movement shows that many people are beginning to pay attention to how their data is used. Nevertheless, large and small designs that deceive users are still prevalent in platforms that people use. In design, controlling users to behave in a direction favorable to the service based on user psychology is called “dark patterns”.“Dark patterns” was first introduced by Brignull (2010). He explained it as “tricks used in websites and apps that make you do things that you didn’t mean to, like buying or signing up for something.” Dark patterns lead to problems that can violate privacy and ethics beyond just design that deceives users. Currently, data and privacy issues are drawing attention in dark patterns. However, data and privacy issues are only one of several dark-pattern phenomena. The problem is that many users are not aware that the services they use are manipulating them to benefit the company. This can often make users uncomfortable, but can also lead to unwanted payments. Therefore, preventive measures and regulations are needed to prepare for this phenomenon.
In order to advise people how to protect themselves from this phenomenon, it is first necessary to understand the dark patterns. So, firstly, this paper will explain what dark patterns are, and the background of their creation. This will help to understand why dark patterns are dark. Next, this paper will discuss whether users are aware of dark patterns. In this section, the paper will look at dark patterns from the user’s point of view and see how they are responding to this problem. This paper will then discuss how UX designers are dealing with this issue by focusing on UX designers’ roles and authority. As UX designers are in a practical position to handle dark patterns and intermediaries between the product and the user, it is essential to understand the UX designer’s point of view. After that, the paper will address why companies are applying dark patterns to services. This is to understand how the company came to use dark patterns and how it is using users’ information to do so. Also, this is to suggest solutions that consider the company’s position. Through this research, finally, this paper seeks to propose solutions to prevent dark patterns based on an understanding of users, designers, and companies’ positions in the dark patterns phenomenon.
What are dark patterns?
As technology advances, the way of designing services and platforms started to have an impact on real users. According to Yokohama(2021), the concept of “Nudge” was created when the study of psychology-based behavioral economics was established around the late 1970s. Thaler & Sunstein (2008) defined Nudge as “private or public initiatives that steer people in particular directions but that also allow them to go their own way”. This study initially designed “choice architectures” for people’s benefit, focusing on understanding rather than mediation (Narayanan, Mathur, Chetty & Kshirsagar, 2020). As time went by, however, it became a tool to achieve certain policy goals. This eventually led to Growth Hacking(marketing focused on corporate growth) such as Hot mail which was a viral marketing strategy.
As a result, many experts argued that ethical consideration was required in the design process. There has been a lot of research on ethical design. One of the representative studies is Value Sensitive Design(VSD). VSD is a theoretically grounded approach to the design of technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner throughout the design process (Friedman, Kahn & Borning, 2002).
In the past, people tried to solve technical and social challenges with the VSD approach. While these theories are of academic and logical value, however, they have not been practical in design practice. This is because there was a lack of fundamental discussion of ethics and it was unclear what theories and which values were included (Mandison, Shruthi & Colin, 2018). “Dark patterns” is a term rooted in this background and redefines ethical design from a more practical perspective.
Brignull (2010), who first defined dark patterns, saw the dark pattern interface as a “tricky” design. The “trick” here refers to the intentional manipulation of a user’s behavior. Basically, dark patterns abuse human cognitive psychology, so users are helpless against these tricks. For example, when the user signs up for the service, options that are beneficial to the company are already check-marked to make users easily agree with it. In such cases, users easily miss the point of what they agree with. Users also easily experience situations where they are registered for automatic monthly payments without their knowledge for the subscribed platforms. These dark patterns attributes make service helpful options noticeable, and user beneficial options — such as unsubscribe buttons — hidden behind a few pages, cause inconvenience.
Yokohama (2021) classified dark patterns as representative attributes as follows. Firstly, Covert dark patterns pressure users to make specific decisions and hides the mechanisms that hinder them. Secondly, Deceptive dark patterns induce users to have false beliefs. This is often seen on shopping websites, setting a countdown timer as if it were the last discount. Thirdly, Information hiding. This means hiding information vaguely or deliberately delaying the information needed. For instance, when users subscribe, the renewal payment is hidden, or users are not shown the price until just before the transaction. Next is the Restrictive Dark Patterns. This means eliminating or reducing options. In other words, it’s easy to subscribe but difficult to cancel. The last attribute is Discriminative treatment. This is often seen in games, where paid players are systematically given benefits to win the game rather than free players.
Understanding the background of dark patterns helps understand the broad context of this phenomenon. This section has explained why dark patterns are bad and implies that this situation is likely to become worse. This means that design has been weaponized using behavioral research for economic benefit, not for user benefits.
User’s attitude to dark patterns
Today’s online services are becoming more sophisticated as technology evolves. As a result, manipulation practices are becoming widespread. As personalization becomes a keyword these days, data collection is becoming an important key to the company’s success. Personalization gives users convenience. On the other hand, there are huge potential risks relating to privacy infringement. The main problem is that users lose their privacy rights and especially the ignorant users are easily infringed upon their independent decision-making ability.
So, what do users think about the dark pattern phenomenon? Are they aware of the dark pattern? If not, why do they not recognize it? As a previous study of this question, Di Geronimo, Braz, Fregnan, Palomba & Bacchelli (2020) explained with the concept of “Dark pattern-blindness” why users do not recognize dark patterns in mobile applications. The result of this experiment was that most users were unaware of the existence of malicious designs, especially if it was a subtle dark pattern. Nevertheless, the studies have shown that participants are more easily aware of dark patterns when they are potentially aware of them. This means that informing users of the potential dangers of dark patterns can cause them to discover and resist this. As human nature has the propensity to maintain basic options, people easily follow the intended nudge(when privacy agreement options were already checked) in privacy decisions. In their second experiment, they proposed a solution to dark patterns through a privacy-friendly design, which they named “bright patterns”. They also recommended long-term improvements that help users acquire procedural rules because the repeated use of analytic thinking converts into protection heuristics (e.g., every time a user encounters a consent request, they take the time to read the information before making a choice)(Bongard, Rossi, Rivas, Doublet, Koenig & Lenzini, 2021).
According to studies by Bongard, Rossi, Rivas, Doublet, Koenig & Lenzini (2021), even though people are aware that manipulation interfaces influences user behavior, they do not show much resistance to that design. This implies that raising the user’s awareness of dark patterns alone cannot protect against this phenomenon. To compensate for these problems, active interventions such as design, technology, education, and legal regulations are needed.
How do UX designers deal with dark patterns?
UX designers are originally user experience designers, who design the overall experience of the product from beginning to end. UX designers are practically responsible for designing the product, so they are most closely related to the product that users face. At the same time, it is necessary to consider the business aspect in a position where the needs of stakeholders must be met. In other words, UX designers are at the center of the dark pattern phenomenon as mediators of products and users. In fact, many UX designers have posted warnings about dark patterns and have undertaken research in advance. Some definitions of dark patterns suggest that designers abuse special knowledge (Gray, Kou, Battles, Hoggatt & Toombs, 2018). It is said that the designer intentionally displays dark patterns to achieve their purpose. But before these claims, we need to look at the underlying causes. According to a Twitter analysis of hashtag dark patterns, most designers mentioned “shame” during their participation in operational UX practice. This comes from conflicts of ethical values of designers and stakeholder interests in practice. Designers must balance both business needs and user demands. In practice, however, this can be difficult to do as the needs and demands can be very different.
To avoid this crisis, it requires more than just avoiding design patterns. Narayanan, Mathur, Chety & Kshirsagar (2020) argue that firstly structural changes in the design process are essential. In order to consider ethical design in the design process, it is important to prioritize values based on multi-stakeholder requirements (Fiore, 2020). This should be considered when structuring the decision-making process by specifically creating a list of requirements that are good to discuss with stakeholders. However, there cannot be ethics in the social technology system without individual ethical guarantees, so general social values should be considered first. Therefore, some values cannot take priority over other values favored by the company and the institution in which the designer works. For example, privacy and automacy are values that are prone to conflict between society and business. Ethical judgment is possible by asking a few questions when prioritizing values. Fiore (2020) suggested the following as an ethical question for a systematic design approach:
1. Is there anyone who will suffer or be put in an inappropriate situation as a result of this design?
2. Are these consequences in any way avoidable or foreseeable?
The high-level value principle design can be used as a guide for the design community. However, this whole process is beyond the scope of the designer’s individual actions. Therefore, the responsibility for integrating ethics in the design process lies with the organization, all individuals can do is to try to improve ethical awareness within the organization (Narayanan, Mathur, Chety & Kshirsagar, 2020).
Why are companies applying dark patterns to their services?
The reason why companies use dark patterns is because of money, data, and attention (Narayanan, Mathur, Chety & Kshirsagar, 2020). As the online economy developed, companies became more profitable than growth. Originally, the purpose of a nudge was to benefit users, but it was abused to undermine consumers’ autonomy by chasing profits. Companies have been testing A/B test to gain insight into human cognitive psychology-based behavior and use it as a company benefit. In this way, dark patterns have encouraged users to consume more of the company’s services.
Secondly, dark patterns have been widely used to collect data. There are two sides to collecting user data. First of all, collecting information reduces costs and increases efficiency for companies. In addition, the more data there is, the more users can understand the characteristics and requirements of each user, thus providing appropriate information for each user. However, this ambivalence is implicated in privacy issues. Agreeing to collect data also means that information belongs to a third party in a legitimate way. They can be commercial actors such as companies, suppliers, home security providers, software and hardware vendors, or standardization organizations (Fiore, 2020). In fact, the effect of data collection with dark patterns is enormous. Only less than 1 percent of users agreed to provide information when cookie content dialogs asked users for consent without manipulation design. Apple recently updated its data policies to enhance privacy for users. In the updated OS, data can be collected only when users agree to track smartphone usage records. As a result, 85% of users did not allow app information to be provided after the update, which would reduce app developer advertising revenue by up to 60%.
The third reason why companies use dark patterns is to create an addiction to services for users. For the company, users who stay on the platform for a long time will purchase more services, provide more personal information, and face more advertising.
Even if these dark patterns effects benefit the company, in the long run, this form of consumer deception will undermine customer confidence and brand value. This could lead to customer service discontinuation. Therefore, the company should not only pursue short-term profits, but also consider long-term connections with customers. The bond with customers will soon have a good user rating and will have a good impact on brand reputation.
Who is responsible for the problems caused by dark patterns?
So far, in this paper, we have looked at users’ perspectives on dark pattern phenomena, designers’ perspectives, and companies’ perspectives. Dark patterns did not appear suddenly one day, but naturally as technology and markets developed. Even though these ethical issues continue to be the talk of the town, they are not regulated, so they are likely to become huge problems. Therefore, it is necessary to come up with measures to seriously look at and regulate current problems. Then how can we prevent and solve dark patterns? Ethical design encompasses both morals, beliefs, and business principles. Therefore, it is not an issue that individuals should be responsible for alone, but one that users, designers, and companies should be aware of and cooperate together.
This paper has considered dark pattens from three different point of view. First, users need to actively pay attention to their personal information provided on the platform. It is necessary to recognize when the user’s data is collected, what data is used, what the purpose is, and how long it is stored. This change in their perception can create requirements for how users want the company to access their data and what users want to see through data provision themselves. Active participation of these users results in better service by informing designers and companies of customer needs. Designers should understand the context of each different shareholder for well-structured decision-making and ensure that values and exceptions are considered early in the design process. It is also necessary to have a sense of work ethics and carefully consider which values to choose between users and stakeholders. In addition, designers should not lose their ethical perspective and should ask ethical questions throughout the design process. Finally, the company should actively engage in self-regulation of dark patterns as the most influential position in practice. In order to maintain a good long-term relationship with customers, they need a conscientious management attitude, and not just pursue profits. This requires a data policy that clearly notifies why users’ data is needed and how it is used. In addition, the company should create a culture that encourages designers who are directly involved in product design to make ethical designs.
Ethical design is a company’s mission, value, commitment to customers, and a designer’s duty. Designers and companies need to consider the impact of technology and design on society and make ethical considerations when making products. Therefore, the design process should begin with a clear understanding of the values that should be prioritized and with design purpose. Users should have an ethical awareness of the product and should be wary and actively resistant to companies that collect users’ data unethically. The process of designing a product is the process by which designers and users rely on each other’s knowledge to gain synergy. This interaction with sound users will create a better service and a world (Kroesetal, 2009).
Conclusion
This paper analyzed dark patterns from the perspective of users, designers, and companies. Many previous studies have highlighted the role of designers who can actually engage in dark patterns, but because designers are actually part of the company, they have to lean toward making profits. Referring to the limitations of these designer rights, this paper has argued that the solution to dark patterns is not only a designer’s problem but also a problem that requires active cooperation between designers, users, and companies. This paper has not only explored dark patterns from multiple perspectives but also has proposed realistic solutions.
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