Deceptive design patterns

Estimated reading time: 1 minute.

There’s an informative post over on the Mozilla Explains blog, about deceptive design patterns. From the article:

Deceptive design patterns are tricks used by websites and apps to get you to do things you might not otherwise do, like buy things, sign up for services or switch your settings.

The post goes on to list some common examples. I’m sure you’ll recognize at least some of these.

Unfortunately, this kind of deception is not limited to the online world, and most of us don’t even raise an eyebrow when we encounter shady sales practices in the ‘real’ world. But the online world is already much more confusing for many people, so recognizing deception can be difficult.

It’s an interesting read, and it may help you to understand some of what you see online, and on your connected devices.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

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