This barely appears as a problem if you were to wade through the brands involved.  Its almost a practice.

Ironically some us do tend to do these ourselves. Some just evolve into similar patterns .

We’re talking about using psychology in user interfaces . We’re talking about sneaky practices some websites use online to get you to opt in and pay more. The author of this here article decided to name practices – Dark Patterns. It sounds good and I don’t mind. After all these dubious patterns tend to show up all over the place. They are legal or atleast a grey area. They are not breaking the law. They are designed deviously with an understanding of human psychology.

Quoting 90percentofeverything Blog

Low cost airlines that put insurance in your basket without you asking.

Social networking sites purposefully make it hard for you to shrink your social graph or move your content into private realms. I’m looking at you, facebook.

Email sending systems that require you to log-in (using a long forgotten password) in order to unsubscribe. (This is actually forbidden by the revised CAN-SPAM 2008 rules, but it’s widely ignored)

Systems that ask for your email / twitter credentials on the grounds of finding you friends, but then send messages as if they are directly from you, without your express consent.

Supermarkets (in the real world) that prevent you from comparing products on price, by putting items in different sized bundles.

To understand and see real world examples,

Check out the Dark Patterns Wiki here.

or type http://wiki.darkpatterns.org/wiki/Home into your Browser

In some cases the trick ups the conversion by a lot. Personally I never recommend tricking people . Respect your customers. Understanding your ideal customer and giving them what they want will give you everything you’ve ever wanted.

Happen to know any similar dark patterns or sites that use these clever techniques ?

Once again we’re not looking for obvious scams. We’re not looking for scams . We’re I’m looking for techniques used by known or branded products and services that trick users into doing things.  Just out of curiosity and the need to not be ordinary of course.

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