Definition
A user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying overpriced insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills. – Wikipedia
CRO Example
Building features into your UI that deliberately and intentionally go against a user’s best interest. Basically, UI features designed in bad faith and meant to strictly and only benefit the business. Dark patterns are intentional acts, and thus different from more mundane or accidental forms of bad UI design. Doing things like having the cancel button on your annoying signup modal say “No, I’m a stupid dork that wants to stay dumb” (comfirmshaming) or asking for a credit card on a free trial in the hopes that the user forgets to cancel and you start billing them (forced continuity). There’s a whole bunch of them listed on…
Additional reading
- darkpatterns.org – Harry Brignull (originator of the term itself)