Deceptive Patterns
‹ All reading

A Model-Driven Catalogue of Dark Pattern Smells

Author
Padma Iyenghar
Date
1 Jan 2026
Publisher
International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development
Focus
Design Practice
Category
Academic Scholar

A model-driven approach that treats dark patterns as dark pattern model smells enables early detection and structural correction of manipulative interaction designs, providing a foundation for ethi-cally aligned quality assurance in model-driven interaction engineering.

: Dark patterns are manipulative interface strategies that steer users toward choices misaligned with their preferences, especially in e-commerce consent, checkout, and subscription flows. Existing work and regulation describe dark patterns mainly through visual examples or behavioural studies; the underlying interaction logic remains weakly formalised. Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) offers notations for such logic, but there is currently no model-based catalogue or modelling profile for expressing dark patterns as structural defects. This paper proposes a model-driven approach that treats dark patterns as dark pattern model smells. A dedicated Unified Modeling Language (UML) profile, DarkPatternUIProfile , is introduced to represent screens, action buttons, consent elements, form fields, and navigation flows via stereotypes and manipulation-relevant tagged values.