The dark side of UX

When I first started studying in the UX field, the UX community had a kind of idealistic character and aimed to get rid of all the bad user experience, design and usability out there. We where going to change the world for the benefit of all the people, creating great experiences and usable application for all. 

The first steps we took was getting to know our users, their desires and strengths and empowering them by providing them with easy to use products and applications. However somewhere along the way we not only got to know the users strengths but their weaknesses as well. Some turned away from the idealistic character that once defined our combined effort and where seduced to wield their knowledge to increase conversion rates and profit and thus fell for the dark side of UX.

Now, this is a somewhat dramatic picture I'm painting, but the reality actually isn't far off. UX is generally perceived from an idealistic point of view, but it surely has a dark side to it. Most of this dark side relates to the persuasive design principles, which is the basics of designing to encourage users through nudges or psychological design patterns to do the desired action like getting them to fill in forms in the right way, help them find information easily and also getting them to buy something to name a few.  

Persuasive design basically is seduction through design. Some of those techniques where summarized by Cialdini in his best-seller Influence: The psychology of persuasion. Which is explained in this video:

But not only these principles are used to persuade people, even a lot more design principles are used to get the user to do something or get them to buy something. So when UX design is implemented it is naive to think it is only for the benefit of the user as was the idealistic start of the movement. UX is now also used to increase conversion and thus as a commercial tool to increase sales and profitability. This use of UX could to an extend be viewed as the dark side of our field of expertise. 

As the techniques we use to improve experience and increase perception of usability can also be misused to increase conversion and profitability. Al lot more is explained by Harry Brignull with his view on so called "dark patterns" in the video below:

The UX dilemma.

Now of course to a certain extend it should be allowed that your design helps to increase conversion. Of course companies need to sell to stay in existence and having good design could help reach that goal. But when design is deliberately used to mislead users and trying to trick them in to buying that's of course crossing the line. The real dilemma here in my view is to see where that thin red line is that shouldn't be crossed. And in my view the key element in this dilemma is loyalty.

When a design is possibly harmful with regards to the loyalty of a user towards your company, then you are most likely crossing the line. So instead of designing to increase conversion I plead for designing to increase loyalty. The relationship with a user should be viewed as a partnership rather than that the user is viewed as an anonymous consumer. If we aim for loyalty there of course must be transparency on the way the business is run so there is no place for dark patterns in such a philosophy. Best of all it doesn't necessarily hurts the business of a company and profitability could potentially be more in comparison with just aiming for conversion. Each purchase made by the user should be one that is made from the user's need rather than by using design to trick someone in taking the more expensive option, so let's aim for loyalty and let our designs aim to fill the need of our users rather than the need for an increase in conversion. In the end it is not a real trade off as aiming for conversion is just short term vision, where aiming for customer loyalty is aiming for long term benefits for both the user and the companies.

* Special thanks to colleague Bram Kersten, who did an excellent knowledge sharing session on persuasive design recently, which inspired me to write about this topic.

About the author: I'm a former Marine who was educated in User Experience and has a predilection for philosophy of technology and stoicism. In addition I have 7 years experience in the financial services industry, first through a large ICT consultancy company and now at a large international bank. In this time I developed a broad view on various aspects of the business environment. Furthermore being a father and raising my three sons creates another window of perspective. From all these different angles I tend to have a rather peculiar opinion on certain topics which I share through my articles.

Other Posts:

• Contact wait out! Voice UI for proffesional use
• Adaptive Interaction; the future of UI
• The dark side of UX
• UI / UX / CX / Usability; the difference and why it matters
• The European revolt against "big brother"
• On being "in control"
• My opinion on "having an opinion"
• Become a Hero; do the ordinary
• Nous sommes Charlie
• Military vs. Business; Part 1: Internal - external leadership
• Military vs. Business; Part 2: Organiztional & Leadership continuity
• Military vs. Business; Part 3: Creating organization DNA