Suchergebnisse

Der Beitrag widmet sich Designelementen, die profitorientierte Unternehmen bei der Gestaltung von Websites, Apps und Spielen einsetzen, um die User*innen ihrer Angebote so zu manipulieren, dass sie ein Verhalten wählen, das eher den Interessen der Anbieter dient als ihren eigenen.

Lately, researchers, journalists, and regulators are devoting attention to dark patterns, defined as "design choices that benefit an online service by coercing, steering or deceiving users into making decisions that, if fully informed and capable of selecting alternatives, they would not make". Those patterns that have the purpose" or the "substantial effect of obscuring, subverting, or impairing user autonomy, decision-making, or choice" have also been qualified as dark. These definitions are dense: they contain concepts like coercion, nudging, and deception that all alone would deserve an entire work to be discussed.

AbstractDark patterns are user interface design elements which harm users but benefit vendors. These harms have led to growing interest from several stakeholders, including policymakers. We develop a high-level analytical framework – the dark patterns auditing framework (DPAF) – to support policymaker efforts concerning dark patterns. There are growing links between dark patterns and the behavioural science concept of sludge. We examine both literatures, noting several worthwhile similarities and important conceptual differences. Using two 'sludge audits,' and the DPAF, we examine 14 large online services to provide a high-level review of the user experience of these services. Our approach allows policymakers to identify areas of the user 'journey' (dark paths) where sludge/dark patterns persist. For regulators with constrained resources, such an approach more be advantageous when planning more granular analyses. Our approach also reveals several important limitations, notably, within some of the tools for sludge auditing which we develop, such as the 'equal clicks principle.' We discuss these limitations and directions for future research.

Dark patterns are deceptive techniques used by online platforms to manipulate users' behaviour, often without their knowledge or consent.