Design Ethics in the Digital Age
A look at addictive interfaces, data collection, and dark patterns.
If there’s one thing I have learned so far in graduate school it’s that designers are to solve problems. Although a simple statement, the nuances to such a task in product design are much more complicated. Oftentimes designers create problems in the things they make rather than simply solving the problem at hand. A good design is one seen as compelling enough for users to prolong engagement and to return frequently. How does one achieve this though without creating something addictive? A balance between very compelling and addictive is a fine line, one drawn in different places for different people. Regardless of a product’s placement on this line, digital user interaction will generate personal data. What does one do with all this data? A noble soul might delete it but this angelic activity may change when approached by a third party advertiser willing to pay greatly for it. As digital products consume more and more of our lives, a focus on their design intents becomes more and more important. In this piece I want to discuss three potentially unethical product design aspects, the hopeful solutions to prevent their misuse, and my subsequent stances: addictive interfaces, data collection, and dark patterns.
Addictive Interfaces
Addictive interfaces are a design tool used to keep users on a site or application for as long as possible. In discussing this malfeasance I want to conduct a quick experiment. Take out your phone, it’s statistically within six feet of you, and open a social media app. To those of you who haven’t already scrolled down, look at the page and resist the temptation to do so. I’ll be the first to admit the difficulty of such a task. I myself just conducted a trial and failed miserably. The first post I saw was cut off by the bottom fold of my phone which triggered my brain to desire more. Start scrolling and notice that there is no end? You can thank famed designer Aza Raskin for his creation of infinite scroll.
By removing the mental stopping cues from this content consumption, users often find themselves staying on platforms for much longer than desired. These patterns along with colored notifications, subtle animations, and gamified social gratification are all part in the scheme of keeping users on a platform. These practices though can be seen from two sides. As a designer one of the core tenants is to create things compelling enough to keep users engaged. When does this heightened engagement though become addiction? This question is impossible to answer quantitatively and the solution to such addictive designs is just as ambiguous. It is difficult to foresee anyone intentionally making their products less compelling. One can hope however that continuing conversations like this will slowly shift the view of the designer user relationship. I as a young designer can sit here and say that I will be different, but fear those paying my salary will force my hand. The best thing I can do however is to continue this conversation in all future design projects. Although a golden solution may not be present, I feel that individual designers, myself included, must approach future projects with the possibility of addiction as a real outcome.
Data Collection
Regardless of addictive design tools, the prolonged presence of users will create troves of personal data. The idea of this data collection, at least for my generation is nothing new. As someone who has always known their data is being taken and sold I have to admit a relative apatheticness to the whole process. Looking at data collection and monetization from a product design perspective two schools of thought emerge. As a user I enjoy that certain sites remember my preferences. The issue for many comes however when more personal data points are taken and sold.
Although this data can be beneficial in creating a hyper local and personalized internet experience, I believe a level of consent is needed. Following the regulatory example set by the European Union in regards to internet data cookies, users should have to opt in for their data to be tracked and sold. This level of consent creates a dialogue between platforms and users that I feel is incredibly beneficial and necessary as one cannot operate the same without the other. As my design career continues I think it would be incredibly naive to say that I would never sell user generated data from a product I created. The important thing however is a stance that I would never sell such data without the consent of the users themselves.
Dark Patterns
The final potentially unethical design practice I want to discuss is dark patterns. This practice is used to push users to do certain things. An easy way to imagine this is a social media platform that wants you to join an online group. When you open the page it prompts you with an overlay that suggests several groups based on your account interests. The background is blurred so attention falls only to the overlay. Each group has a large button that says “join”. The option to close the overlay however is 1/8th the size, lacking any color, and in the bottom right corner of the overlay which English speakers look to last. At no point is the site requiring you to do anything and maybe you didn’t even join a group and closed the overlay. Let’s say Facebook however were to roll this out to their nearly 2.8 billion monthly active users. There are now a lot more people in groups.
It is hard to imagine legislation or judicial decisions having any impact on such practices. The solution therefore again falls on designers themselves. I would love to take a hard lined stance against any such practices but I feel doing so would again be a naive and blasé approach. Tools are designed with intentional uses in mind. For example, the rubber on a hammer is placed where the designers felt best for users. The important factor in taking a stance against dark patterns is context. Although the groups example mentioned above utilizes a dark pattern, is it really that bad? As a growing designer I feel context will be key in all such decisions I will have to make.
A great conversation in itself, it pains me that this piece will not conclude with a list of tenets or rules for all future designers. Although data collection can be helped through legislation, addictive interfaces and dark patterns are going to be much harder issues to tackle. I believe that acknowledging and talking more about these issues will hopefully influence designers to do the right things. One may say that such an approach is seeing the world through rose colored glasses but I contain optimism. The fact alone that this lesson is involved in my education to become a designer is a step in the right direction.
