

Dark Patterns: dirty tricks designers use to make people do stuff - harrybr
http://www.90percentofeverything.com/2010/07/08/dark-patterns-dirty-tricks-designers-use-to-make-people-do-stuff/

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asmithmd1
I have noticed one at the gas pump when I use my debit card. If you use a
debit card as a credit card, they pay the CC fee, so they want you to enter a
PIN.

Instead of presenting two choices: credit or debit, they ask the question "Is
this a debit card?" I am using a debit card so the answer is yes, it is a
debit card; but you can answer no and they will process as a credit card. It
makes me think about it each time. Pretty sneaky -- I am sure it raised their
debit card rate

~~~
paulgb
For any non-Americans confused by this, in the USA it's common for bank-issued
cards to work as both a debit and credit card. The same machine is used for
both.

~~~
chronomex
More precisely:

There are two protocols for running a card: "debit" and "credit". "Debit" uses
a PIN, and "credit" uses a signature.

There are two types of cards, "debit card" and "credit card". "Debit card" is
tied to a bank account, and "credit card" carries a balance paid off at the
end of the month.

There isn't a strong connection between the two, at least in America. But when
I was working full-time in retail, people would occasionally hand me their
cards and say "it's a debit card". The retailer I worked at only supported the
"credit" (signature) protocol, so I nodded and ignored the request.

~~~
baddox
It's also possible (common?) for there to literally be no difference (to the
cardholder). My credit union's debit card is the credit/debit card like you
describe, but there is no actual credit whatsoever. I can only spend the money
in my account. For some reason, I always choose to run it as a credit card
(mostly because I don't know my pin), which is kind of a dick move since it
costs the sellers.

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dwwoelfel
"Supermarkets (in the real world) that prevent you from comparing products on
price, by putting items in different sized bundles."

At the HEB grocery stores in Texas, every price sticker includes price/ounce
or price/count. I was surprised by how often buying in bulk is more expensive.
Take eggs for instance, there's a 50-50 chance that eggs in the 18-pack will
cost a few cents more than the eggs in the 12-pack.

~~~
amalcon
Around here, I see a lot of instances where one sticker is "price/ounce",
another "price/pound", and sometimes a third with "price/count" or
"price/volume". I thought this was just due to inconsistent manufacturer
standards; I didn't expect that it was intentional.

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someone_here
HN does this to some extent:

* Only allow flagging if viewing the permalink causes less flagging

* No changing votes and small buttons causes people to think more about voting

* Little to no help keeps only the dedicated coming to the site

~~~
dhs
Oh but these are examples for making people _not_ do stuff (like not flag,
vote, or even come back to the site). I don't feel like that's evil at all.

~~~
sgift
What is the difference between convincing people to do something and
convincing them not to do something? Both are the same thing: Convincing
people to exhibit a desired behaviour.

~~~
dhs
Looking at the headline, the theme here is "dirty tricks". Evil intent. And
while I agree that you can use dirty tricks to make people _not_ do something
they'd better do, I fail to see how the examples given by the GP speak of evil
intent.

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Groxx
My personal peeves along these lines: "add to cart to check price!" and not
displaying shipping cost until your credit card data is entered.

That last one prevents me from buying a _lot_ of things, because it seems a
downright insulting thing to do to a potential customer.

    
    
      "How much is it?"
      "$10 + X"
      "How much is X?"
      "Hand over your wallet first.  We'll return it!"

~~~
there
but the first one is often not avoidable. amazon does this for certain items
like the new imac, but they clearly show a helpful pointer next to the "see
price in cart" link.

"Why Don't We Show the Price? Some manufacturers place restrictions on how
prices on their products may be communicated."

~~~
Groxx
So the idiocy lies with the producers, not the sellers. It's still idiocy.

But true, that does put it outside "Dark Designs".

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pclark
the greatest one is the "import your contacts" from GMail and it invites
anyone not using your service, to your service too.

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kolya3
There is a great link buried in the comments of that blog about UI design and
providing feedback to user: <http://www.danlockton.com/dwi/Lenses>

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noodle
i don't know if i'd classify most of these things as "dirty tricks". i would
put taking actions on behalf of or as a user without their knowledge or
consent as at least a level higher than a dirty trick.

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ianferrel
There's a need for some space in a web browser that is reserved for browser
messages. This space has to be distinct from space that can be used to display
content, otherwise the website can spoof browser notifications.

Of course, this has to be balanced with the desire to devote as much space as
possible to content and have the browser get out of the way of the browsing
experience. But any browser notification that's displayed _only_ in space
that's otherwise content is just asking for trouble.

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DenisM
There are fantastic comments in the linked article.

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Gormo
This article focuses on the use of these "dark patterns" to mislead people,
but the basic idea is used positively in many, many contexts.

Quality engineers use the concept of a "poka-yoke"
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poka-yoke>) to failsafe their processes and
systems all the time.

