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Design Matters 13: Dark Patterns

Quite a few people have asked, “Why are you actually doing it? You’re in fact making a guidebook for evil designers and making it very easy for them to just go along to that site and basically copy all the tricks that you’ve described there.”

Frankly the answer to that is quite simple: the reason I’ve done it is because all kinds of con-artistry rely on the hustler having knowledge that the victim doesn’t have. They have to know about the trick, and the victims can’t know about it or it won’t work.

So as soon as that knowledge is shared, then they’ve got no tricks they can pull. Scams don’t work if the victim knows what the hustler’s trying to do.

Harry Brignull

Avoid them. Don’t use them.

See them all at darkpatterns.org, or watch this video.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and recommended resources...

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