For this task, we were asked to work out way through User Inyerface – which is described as a, “challenging exploration of user interactions and design patterns” (Baggar). What they haven’t told you though, is how frustrating this game can be, specifically for people who are lucky enough to engage in easy-to-interact with user interfaces on websites. Furthermore, this game reminds us of how innocently ignorant we are to the dark patterns of deception during our plugged-in time.

Right from the beginning screen of the game, you can see that deception and deviousness are at play. Brignull (2011) discusses how human reading behaviour lends itself to deception. “…people tend to start reading at the beginning of a piece of text and as they advance, an increasing percentage of people give up and do not read to the end.” Well, if you take a look at the image below, you’ll see that not only do you need to read to the very end of the page, but you also need to understand what the text is telling you, while throwing out the window when your attention goes, in order to progress to the next page.

The game proceeds by throwing a bunch of curveballs and really making you strain to figure out the correct next step. It doesn’t help that the game had challenged you to complete it as quickly as possible, which for any competitive person was icing on top to finish fast. While “the level of deception is very subtle,” (Brignull, 2011) you can see that Bagaar really did their research with understanding design patterns that humans fall victim to, such as colour, positioning, and icons. We instinctively skim information and this game knows all our secrets and has decided to use it against us.

So what’s the point?

I believe that it’s about making us more aware of the information that is being presented or pushed at us and to understand that many companies out there, including social media advertising, are being deceptive in order to benefit their business. As the user, companies are hiding key information, benefiting from our mistakes, and burying negative feedback (Brignull, 2011). This is not okay. As we move forward it will crucial to continue to call out these companies and look for their reactions and what they will do next – which is to move towards honest interfaces instead of dark patterns.

End Game: