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Dark Patterns aka "Evil Design" aka Scamming Through Design (16)

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Dark Patterns = Dirty Tricks to Increase Conversion Rates!

Dark Patterns are ways to design a web page that might initially look like "Bad Design" but in reality are there to get the user to take our desired action!


Here are some examples


They are used for "good" causes?



Ie - preselect the default option that is most beneficial to you as a company.


Adding in extra products "in your best interest"

Like an ipad case when you buy an ipad from UK store Comet




Easy to Join, Hard to Leave




"Hide" the real link, and get them to click ads




Study the examples!

Here is a site dedicated to highlighting Dark Patterns.

Study It.

Watch this presentation




Explore this Wiki:

http://wiki.darkpatterns.org/Home



You will make more money!

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That oxfam one is kind of shocking.

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fascinating talk.... love stuff like this, though naming and shaming companies like Ryanair will not do a damn thing as they just don't give a shit! what strikes me about this is its all about corporate profits.... and it is so often the case that affiliates get a bad rep as they are accused of carrying shady stuff, but no one kicks up a fuzz that these massive corporations are pulling off scams like this under our noses

saying that, I'm sure there are a few lessons we can all borrow from theses examples.

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most of the time these big companies don't know what the fuck they're doing... they're just run by marketing depts. and their design teams are told to test x,y,z.

i know this from working @ alienware (was on of their web designers a few years ago).... but keep in mind most of these sites aren't geared towards conversions in the first place... so any changes they make testing can/will have a big difference in #'s.

so some of the info might be applicable.

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I can guarantee cougarlife got a few extra months of subscription out of me by making it difficult to cancel the subscription. They say to call the phone number, but no one ever picks up the phone. Finally, I just emailed them and told them to cancel my subscription. Surprisingly, they took care of it really fast.

***off topic***

cougarlife is probably the only dating site that I had women emailing me through no effort of my own crappy profile and all...lol. Just make sure there's lots of cougars in your area before you get a subscription it's hit or miss for different areas

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To say that these types of things are scams is almost to forsake alot of what we do. Sometimes the things we do feel shady - but we do them anyway, other times we pass up goldmine opportunities at the quivering of our conscience simply because it's the right thing to do. It's one of those things that alot of people struggle with starting out. There is a difference between right out screwing people and putting things in the fine print that nobody cares enough to read.

Rebills for instance. Not to say there weren't some downright shady rebills out there, but the big ones that were most promoted did have fair warning. It's not our fault if they don't read the page and blindly agree to terms they haven't read. Or shitty clickbank products, don't feel bad about it. They have a 60-day money back no questions guarantee and if a person doesn't get a refund, all you can assume is that they were satisfied with the product.

I will say that as an affiliate marketer, I am instantly suspicious of pretty much anything marketing related. There is always a catch. It may not be a bad one, but a catch nonetheless.

I'm more concerned with the fact that these big businesses are actually starting to do marketing the RIGHT way.

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Interesting. Anyone use that "difficult out" trick to reduce people from making use of money-back guarantees?

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i actually make it really easy for our customers to cancel... they can click a button inside the site and cancel any time they want. i mean if they don't want it, why ruin a customer over a couple of dollars? you gotta think longer term.

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The "difficult out" is also a classic of old school direct response shipping...eg you can cancel or get a refund but you have to write by snail mail AND send them back the 2 empty bottles of pills in the original packaging or whatever. Most people never get around to it.

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True, but I was thinking more like if you where selling an $10 ebook on how to get six pack abs or something. If the price they paid isn't that high and the money back is a hassle, maybe a good chunk of people wouldn't even bother. Say you did 1000 sales...

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Yep. This is why many of the "ebook" and training type products have these fancy 30,60,90 day money back guarentee no questions asked.

A lot of people dont bother because:
1) they forget
2) they are embarrassed cause the reason they failed is that they didnt take any action

etc etc

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I've also heard recommend longer money back periods (ie. 90 days rather than 30). The reason being, people won't rush to refund because they "have plenty of time to do it" and might get more use out of it in the meantime, and then get in a habit of deferring it. Eventually they forget about it entirely.

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Yeah. And it also increases conversions a lot. Gary Halbert (famous copywriter) says if you go for a long guarantee you can double or triple your refund rate but you also double or triple your sales. So you get a 30% refund rate on 1500 sales instead of a 10% refund rate on 500 products. Do the math.

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Some great additions guys!

What about "unlimited" guarantees? Do they work?

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i think you're looking at this from the wrong perspective.

why would someone want to refund a $10 ebook?

its super cheap.

think differently.... how can i give the customer an amazing value for $10... and how can i help them get more results with more advanced trainings?

and the difficult out isn't an "internet" thing... remember people can now post all kinda stuff about you and your brand online... and that WILL deter some people from buying.... hard to do that with offline stuff before the 'net. just something to think about.

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For a customer on the PUA niche (consulting), I've once split tested 7 days/30 days/60 days

There weren't any differences. So we kept 7 days

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