There is a notable rise in websites and mobile apps that use manipulative (also known as “deceptive”) designs or “dark patterns”. Leveraging visual perception effects and cognitive biases or object manipulations, these designs influence user behavior in ways that may not be beneficial or can even be harmful for users. It is important to both warn and educate users about manipulative designs. While numerous studies have investigated warning designs across various domains, little attention has been given to exploring how to warn users about the presence of manipulative designs in applications.
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Designing Effective Warnings for Manipulative Designs in Mobile Applications
The factors influencing users to install an app despite being informed about the presence of manipulative designs are discussed and how app distribution platforms can embed warnings in the app information to prevent or mitigate the harms of manipulative designs is demonstrated.