Dark Patterns, Deceiving Users with Dishonesty
This was an essay I wrote in 2013 for my design theory class, I’ve updated the sources and images with links, but the essay remains largely the same from when I originally wrote it.
When a designer looks at a design that isn’t theirs for the first time, a plethora of thoughts will rush through their head as they try to determine whether or not what they are looking at is a good design. Perhaps it’s not good, perhaps its terrible, or maybe it’s almost there but it hasn’t fully realized it’s potential. This thought process is also used by web designers, and they too will judge similar things, however, in the laundry list of judgements, something that might get overlooked is the intentions that the designer had for the user as they used the website. For example, if the website is an e-commerce site, the assumed intention might be that the company wishes to make a profit from services or...