Could you explain more? Most dark patterns seem to me to be metrics-driven tricks to maximise people accepting GDPR or spam opt-ins, or making additional unintended purchases etc. I don't believe they come from any sort of process of watching users on a task and talking to them. If you're saying that understanding your users allows you to better be hostile towards them, then yes, I agree, but that's bad user interface design by definition.
Re:Fuckin' user interface design, I swear
by webmaven on Thursday March 18, 2021 @02:04PM
(#26505567)
I mean I hat I've observed developers and designers who, when forced to watch users struggle, have the reaction "damn, they're stupid" and further that dark patterns are sometimes motivated by "I bet a lot of people are stupid enough to..."
While that's the only way to build empathy, you should be aware (and beware) that it is also a good way to build contempt (as counterproductive as that often is). Many of the "dark patterns" probably originated that way.