Dark patterns decoded: How to avoid shady online tactics
May 13
Dark patterns (deceptive design patterns) are everywhere in the digital world. They’re so common that as a consumer, you probably don’t even know when you’ve encountered one because they seem so normal. For example:
Accepting terms and conditions without reading the fine print
A countdown clock that resets shortly after your “limited time” purchase
Trying unsuccessfully to unsubscribe from a service
Finding an extra item in your shopping cart as you’re completing a purchase.
Dark patterns impact consumer protection and data protection, so they’re increasingly subject to government crackdowns. Worldwide, we’re seeing more and more laws to try and curb the problem. And in Australia, there are already regulatory moves to bring us into step with the rest of the world.
Any Australian business that has a website, should get ready to comply. And any business with international operations may already be subject to laws in other countries. Now is the time to consider how visitors experience the website: whether any sales tactics are, in fact, dark patterns, and what to do about them.
This webinar will step through these issues and give you some practical advice about how to start readying your website. And best of all, how eliminating dark patterns can be used as a marketing advantage.
