Playing the online game Use Inyerface was more challenging than I thought it might be and is an excellent example of how the attention economy works. There were many times while playing where I had to carefully consider what was being asked of me and carefully select what information to pay attention to and which information to ignore. What threw me off most was that on the surface much of the information that needed to be filled in, or clicked on looked as it normally would on a web or social media site, but was just slightly modified, so that you couldn’t follow your intuition solely based on what you are used to, and instead needed to read carefully.
Interface uses a lot of distraction techniques that would typically be used to lead you in the right direction, but in this context were there to act as distractors, adding precious seconds to your time. These were:
- Big green buttons (obviously I want to click it!!)
- Pop up boxes
- Countdowns
- Underlined words
- Words in different colors than the rest of the text
Other techniques were used to put pressure on the user to make quick decisions, particularly the pop up boxes telling me my time was running out, then making it difficult to understand how to close them. Other things that I would not necessarily classify as distracting, but were certainly frustrating were:
- Prompts that need to be deleted before filling in your own information
- Options that are preselected which you must unselect
- Flags for incorrect matches which are in fact correct (i.e. Mrs & Male)
- Irrelevant/ Non descript questions (number, box)
- Contradictory questions
- Misordered months
- Age year beginning in an era where no internet use would have been born
- Confusing questions (identify the glasses, bows, circles)
- Oppositional questions (I do not agree to the terms and conditions)
Ultimately, this exercise demonstrates what you can do with website design that will ultimately make it more or less successful. Those things that I noted as being distracting as they were able to grab my attention would be those things that might encourage people to sign up for products, or provide information they might otherwise not do on the internet. I thought these things would be particularly useful for scammers, and even had to stop and think whether to use real or fake information because it seemed so much like a red flag to me. The things that were frustrating on the other hand, might make me stray from the path of signing up for membership on a website I may have previously wanted to. These are things that I would not want to do if I were creating a website of my own.
In the world of education this exercise is applicable because it makes us realize how susceptible we humans are to these sorts of dark patterns (Brignull, 2011), and how susceptible our students would be as well. These dark patterns present possible dangers to students while they are engaging in online or social media activities. But on the other hand, it also brings to mind how teachers might be able to use these techniques to their advantage in order to direct student attention in the right direction.
References
Bagaar. (2019). User Inyerface [web game].
Brignull, H. (2011). Dark patterns: Deception vs. honesty in UI design. A List Apart, 338.
Hi Amy,
I completed a linking assignment on this post of yours. Here it is: https://blogs.ubc.ca/mssvirk/2023/03/27/linking-assignment-6-amy-stiff-attention-economy/
Hi Amy! I enjoyed reading your response to this activity. User Inyerface did a really great job at subverting expectations when it comes to web interface design. As you mention in your post, this illustrates what is possible with web design and how similar, often subtle techniques, can be used to shift our behaviours in a way that serves commercial interests or something more malicious in nature.
In your post, you mention the idea of teachers using similar techniques so manage or direct attention. I thought this was an interesting point, as I’m aware of several instructional design frameworks that address strategies for captivating learner’s interest and directing attention to important subject matter. For example, the Universal Design for Learning Framework (CAST, 2018) recognizes the variability that learners bring when it comes to their attention and interests, and suggests that teachers design learning that is relevant and authentic, while minimizing distractions. Mayer’s (2009) Principles of Multimedia Learning recognizes that learners have a limited capacity to take in new information when using multimedia for instruction, and suggests a number of principles to minimize any unnecessary effort for the learner. I noticed that Mayer’s (2009) principle addresses attention in the ‘coherence’ principle, which suggests that any irrelevant information (e.g. decorative images, background music) be reduced, and the ‘signalling’ principle, which suggests that use of verbal or visual cues (e.g. highlighter, arrows) to guide learner attention to what’s important.
References
CAST (2018). Universal design for learning guidelines. http://udlguidelines.cast.org
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (Second edition.). Cambridge University Press.