Task 10: Attention Economy 

While initially reading through the task details, I questioned why it said you may not finish the game. However, midway through my attempt at the “User Inyerface” game, I well understood the reasoning behind it. This activity was frustrating to say the least, my brain is trained to click quickly and enter information as fast as I can. The game labels me a “true interface legend”, however, I beg to differ considering it took me 11 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the game. 

Throughout the game, there are several misconceptions. For example, the designers use colour to draw your attention to the wrong button, a cancel button would be labelled in green which usually tells our brain that is the way to move ahead. Brignull (2010) talks about how certain companies and designers of those companies use deception to trick their users. For example, placing important information in the middle and knowing that most people will skip ahead (not read the entire thing) and click ‘agree to all terms and conditions’ (Brignull, 2010). We all probably do this but would say that we would never agree to anything we weren’t sure of. The designers of these dark patterns manipulate users’ minds, knowing that we may have little patience to deal with the fine print or for heavy searching. The technological world has transformed to easy accessibility, therefore, we have the desire to do everything seamlessly and efficiently. User Inyerface shows how reliant we are on consistency and simplicity. The game takes you through several questions that challenge the efficiency of a web page design. For example, having to delete the words when needing to enter your personal information and needing to search for the ‘close’ button while trying to exit from a time limit screen. 

After playing, I started thinking about the game from a different perspective. I would say I am fairly tech savvy and have experience using different web pages from online shopping, professional use, and through social media. A few years ago my dad asked me to show him where his desktop was. My immediate response was to laugh. I found it hilarious that he didn’t understand that his desktop was the main screen of his computer. However, after playing this game and feeling the frustration of not being able to understand or complete anything, I finally understood how generations who grew up without computers and were only introduced to technology halfway through their life felt. I now understand why my dad gets frustrated and impatient with technology because it isn’t always easy. User Inyerface taught me how to remain calm and patient while trying to understand the task. So not only did this game teach me how to avoid the dark patterns of web design, it taught me how to be more empathetic with those who are still testing the waters with technology.

References

Brignull, H. (2011). Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. Interaction Design, Usability, 338.