Linked to the post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540thc/2022/07/23/task-10-attention-economy/

Even before I began playing the game, I recognized the irony of the name “Inyerface”, now fully understanding why this game is truly “in-your-face” as I attempt it to completion. Only 2 minutes into the game, I found myself clicking aimlessly in hopes of leaving the timer screen. Sophy and I shared the same sentiment towards this game- a level of frustration beyond measure. Her reference to Don Norman’s concepts in design and use of genial.ly to highlight the misleading signifiers was an effective  approach to emphasizing  UI/UX. These ‘unintuitive’ signifiers are suggestive of  deceptive user interfaces that are used to manipulate our responses to perform a forced action. Adding to Sophy’s example of the ‘opt-in’ boxes, this is similar to  one of the tricks employed for the A/B and multivariate tests to elicit user preferences (Brignull, 2011). To give a name to these signifiers, I found this infographic informative in detecting some of the most common dark patterns that businesses may use to force them to do something that is not in their interest. (Khindri, 2021) 

Taking Sophy’s researching style leads to asking and observing her roommates’ interactions with the game, I sought out my own expert advice on UI/UX- my sister, who worked as a project manager at a technology studio to design some of the interactive exhibits at Vancouver Science World.  She provided me with a case of a poor UI suggestion where the client wanted to put the “x” for the exit screen on all four corners of the app on the iPad. This correlates to Sophy’s comment about our expectations and habits as users in the online environment, where we are conditioned to look at the upper right corner for that “x”. As we navigate our lives in an online space, we may have become so comfortable and familiar with a certain design but serves as a reminder to  be more cognisant of traps that still exist and require our attention. 

Khindri, D (2021, July 9) 10 Common Dark Patterns in UX and How to Avoid Them. Net Solutions. Retrieved from https://www.netsolutions.com/insights/dark-patterns-in-ux-disadvantages/