Don’t be tricked by deceptive design

If you have ever opened Facebook to check “just one thing” and found that hours later you were still on it, you may have fallen prey to one of the many elements of deceptive design employed to keep you glued to that app (sometimes referred to as “dark patterns”).

For any app or website or online service that you use, there are numerous design decisions that went into it – how is it going to work, what should the person using it click on, where should the login button be, among many others. Basically, if there is a thing you interact with on a screen, a design decision went into making that thing the way it is. Many of these decisions centre around usability. This includes putting elements where users expect them to be (why many sites have login buttons on the top right of the screen, or navigation links at the top), making sure everything functions on multiple devices, ensuring that error messages are clear, understandable, and allow the user to correct what they need to.

Design decisions can also be persuasive and nudge the user towards specific actions needed to use the service or app effectively. Nudges tend to help the user, such as ATM machines requiring you to retrieve your bankcard before dispensing cash so you don’t forget your card. Persuasive design elements should guide the user but still make it easy enough for the user to choose what they want to do. It should be in the best interests of the user, rather than the interests of the corporation offering the app.

When persuasive design tips into benefiting the corporation over the user, that’s where we start to see deceptive design – design choices that prompt the user to act contrary to their own interests. Once you understand what some of these design elements are, and what they are trying to get you to do, you’ll start to see them everywhere.

One deceptive element you may have noticed is called “confirmshaming.” This is when a retail website prompts you to sign up for their marketing emails, usually with the promise of a discount. Usually this happens via a pop up with a prominent text box to enter your email, a big friendly button to submit that email, and then much smaller text that lets you opt out – usually saying “No, I don’t like deals” or similarly passive aggressive language. The choice whether or not to give your email to a company is not presented as an equal choice, and the interface attempts to shame the user into providing that information. Sometimes the only way to clear the window is through an “x” button, which may be tiny, poorly contrasted with the background and hard to find, or located in an unexpected place on the popup (like the top left).

Preselection is a very common tactic when it comes to website cookies which track your online behaviour and allow companies to target ads to your interests. Websites often provide a one-click option to accept all cookies, but require several clicks to disable cookies related to ad tracking. Social media sites, notably, will often preselect privacy settings for you that benefit their ad revenue over your actual privacy, necessitating you having to wade through multiple screens before being able to make your own choices. These companies are counting on you taking the path of least resistance and just accepting what they want you to.

In the Facebook example I mentioned at the start, you may have gotten caught up by infinite scroll and autoplay. By feeding you a never-ending parade of new content and playing videos automatically, apps that utilize this kind of design undermine your ability to break away from that feed by presenting something new and novel over and over and over again. Keeping your attention locked to these apps ensures more ads get served up to you thereby increasing revenue for Meta, TikTok, and other companies that use that kind of design.

Many deceptive design elements go against consumer protection and privacy laws, with most of the legal action against companies employing these tactics occurring in the EU where such laws tend to be comparatively strict. As a consumer, learning what kind of design elements might be manipulating you can be a source of empowerment. Recognizing deceptive design can help you to see through those efforts and make better decisions – rather than big tech companies making decisions for you.

Learn more

From Amazon to Tiktok to Temu: Manipulative designs remain a problem 2025. (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband) Last accessed 2025/10/28

How Facebook and Other Sites Manipulate Your Privacy Choices 2020. Arielle Pardes (Wired) Last accessed 2025/10/28

Dark patterns 2024. (Government of Canada - Office of Consumer Affairs) Last accessed 2025/10/28

DARK PATTERNS: MALICIOUS INTERFACE DESIGN FROM A USERS’ PERSPECTIVE 2021. KB Bergman (Utrecht University) Last accessed 2025/10/28

Deceptive Patterns (Website) Last accessed 2025/10/28

New Google Chrome Targeted Ad Tracking—Here’s How To Stop It 2023. Kate O’Flaherty (Forbes) Last accessed 2025/10/28

Towards Understanding the Dark Patterns That Steal Our Attention 2022. Alberto Monge Roffarello (CHI '22: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) Last accessed 2025/10/28

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