The Dark Side Of Interaction Design: Nudges, Dark Patterns And Digital Addiction

Interaction designers have developed a number of techniques that are commonly used to nudge users, for example, to click on ads, stay on a site, keep playing a game and come back for more. In addition, a proliferation of books and guidelines have been published that explain how to change users' behaviour through designing persuasive interventions at the interface. Many of these are intended to be for personal improvement or social good, such as to help people get fitter, improve their work productivity, be more motivated, reduce energy consumption and so on. However, the same techniques can also be used for more nefarious ends. Sometimes, referred to as dark patterns, they have become essentially tricks that websites and apps use to make users do things they didn't intend doing, such as buying or signing up for something. At the same time, a backlash against interaction design is beginning to appear; criticizing us for our role in the rise in digital addiction, fake news, social media abuse, etc. Are we to blame for letting the genie out of the bottle? One response has been to change direction. For example, B.J. Fogg, who set up the much acclaimed Persuasive Tech Lab, has now renamed it as the Behavior Design Lab. Instead of persuading or nudging, the new agenda is to find ways of helping people take control of their lives again. For example, acknowledging that people have become compulsively glued to their phones, apps are now popping up intended to help them overcome their addictions, such as reducing screen time. But is it too little and too late? More generally, should HCI become more responsible for the new interaction techniques it develops, and prescriptive advice it offers, and, if so, how?