In web design, there is a concept of patterns – templates that can either improve a product and attract an audience or cause the exact opposite effect. Our today’s topic is web design patterns that are better not to use and that can greatly harm a brand.
Dark UX patterns are elements of websites and applications designed to mislead users and force them to perform a targeted action against their will.
Here’s a simple example: you start a mobile game and a commercial appears between levels. In the upper right corner, you see a timer that changes to a “cross” when it reaches zero. You click on it, but instead of closing the ad, you are redirected to the advertiser’s website. This is a dark pattern – in fact, a deception.
Dark patterns can have a positive effect “here and now,” but in the long run, they only reduce the level of audience loyalty and cause distrust. If someone tries to deceive the user, they will not put up with it for long.
There are established web design templates that users are used to. For example, a product catalog on the left side of an online store page or additional information about the company in the “basement” of the site. When distracting, interfering, and confusing elements appear, these are dark patterns. Some are quite harmless, while others can have serious consequences.
How to create website design without dark patterns
There are many reasons why dark patterns appear in website design templates at all: A client’s desire to earn more money, a designer’s desire to show his or her own ingenuity, or a simple misunderstanding of what can be used in design development and what should be abandoned immediately.
