Self-ordering kiosks (SOKs) are widely deployed in fast food restaurants, transforming food ordering into digitally mediated, self-navigated interactions. While these systems enhance efficiency and average order value, they also create opportunities for manipulative interface design practices known as dark patterns. This paper presents a structured audit of the McDonald’s self-ordering kiosk in Germany using the Temporal Analysis of Dark Patterns (TADP) framework. Through a scenario-based walkthrough simulating a time-pressured user, we reconstructed and analyzed 12 interface steps across intra-page, inter-page, and system levels.
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Deception by Design: A Temporal Dark Patterns Audit of McDonald’s Self-Ordering Kiosk Flow
A structured audit of the McDonald’s self-ordering kiosk in Germany using the Temporal Analysis of Dark Patterns (TADP) framework is presented, demonstrating how recurring high-level strategies implemented through meso-level patterns accumulate across the interaction flow and may be amplified by the kiosk’s linear task structure and physical context.