Comments on: Darkpatterns.org: naming and shaming sites that use black hat, anti-usability design patterns.

By: dave

dave — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 12:33:35 +0000

harry – bit weird that on this page (and this site?) that when you hover on a link it turns the same appearance as normal text (i.e. no underline, no blue) as if it to say “nah this isn’t a link” (latest firefox on mac), fair enough it doesn’t stop me clicking the link, but it’s not very friendly

By: Cathy Pierce

Cathy Pierce — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:31:31 +0000

Just a little addition to the naming and shaming: /www.deviceanduserexperience.com Dark pattern no1: The form to download the report from the 2010 conference has the closing text 'Carefully selected third parties may contact you with relevant industry news and offers, tick here if you donâ€t want to receive them' but the checkbox has the letter 'Y' beside it. So when scanning the page you interpret ticking the box as saying 'Yes' to the '...carefully selected third parties...' blurb. This irritated me. Dark pattern no2: the post event report from the 2010 confernce was actually 2 slides with a summary paragraph and listing of attendees. Not much of a report. Conclusion - they think I have time to spare so I will not be attending their conference!

By: Loren Baxter

Loren Baxter — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:43:47 +0000

Thanks Harry, this is awesome. I hope there will be a way to search by company name, so you can check whether a company is shady before dealing with them.

Today’s “Twifficiency” fiasco is a perfect example of dark patterns. Would have been nice if people could check them out before authorizing access.

By: James

James — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:54:35 +0000

Great site — you can tell I like it as I just left lots of comments on there :)

Another possible category: when you highlight or click on a website, pop up/under ads are launched in order to bypass pop up blockers.

And… Flash rollover ads that expand over a page when you mouseover them.