This year, it felt like nearly every app and product had embraced some form of dark pattern. Users tweeted about seeing them on Skype, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Office Depot, even America’s Test Kitchen, and yes, LinkedIn–truly a dark pattern early adopter. Even a UI feature that most of us see every day–the omnipresent “loading” or “processing” bar–was revealed as a completely fake way to pacify users. […] But while the steady evolution of dark patterns on the internet has been going on for years, something changed this year: We saw them wielded as weapons against democracy.
‹ All reading
The Year Dark Patterns Won
“This year, it felt like nearly every app and product had embraced some form of dark pattern. Users tweeted about seeing them on Skype, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Office Depot, even America’s Test Kitchen, and yes, LinkedIn–truly a dark pattern early adopter.”