Topic
Design ethics
Every design nudges someone toward something. Design ethics is about whose interest the nudge serves - the line between helping people decide and tricking them into it. The techniques are not hard to learn; the harder part is choosing not to use the ugly ones, even when they work.
This cluster looks squarely at the manipulative end of the craft - the dark patterns and deceptive defaults that buy a short-term number by spending users' trust - so you can name them, resist the pressure to ship them, and build the honest version instead.
Each entry shows the trick working on you first, because the pull is far easier to refuse once you have felt how well it pulls.
The design ethics entries 11
-
design ethics
Dark patterns
Interface tricks that nudge you toward choices you didn’t intend to make - for the business’s benefit, not yours.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Confirmshaming
Confirmshaming is wording the opt-out to make declining feel foolish, guilty, or cheap - 'No thanks, I'd rather pay full price.' The choice remains; the shame is the thumb on the scale.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Roach motel
A roach motel is a flow that’s easy to join but deliberately hard to leave - one click to subscribe, a hidden maze to cancel. The asymmetry is the trick: friction only ever runs one way.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Preselection
Preselection is choosing for the user in your own favour and hoping they don't notice - a pre-ticked opt-in, an extra already in the basket, the pricier plan selected by default. It weaponises the same inertia that makes good defaults helpful, but points it at the business's interest instead of the user's.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Fake scarcity
Fake scarcity is a made-up shortage - "only 2 left!", "low stock!" - shown to pressure you into buying, when the number reflects nothing real and never actually runs out. It borrows the genuine urgency of true scarcity but lies about the facts, so the pressure is manufactured rather than honest.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Forced continuity
Forced continuity is a free trial that converts to a paid subscription without clear warning - the card is charged upfront, and payment triggers instantly when the trial ends. The trial was real; the trick is the silence around the charge.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Fake urgency
Fake urgency is a deadline that isn't real - a countdown timer that resets when you reload, an "offer ends today" that's there every day - shown to rush you into deciding before you've thought it through. It mimics a genuine time limit but is attached to nothing, so the pressure is pure theatre.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Fake social proof
Fake social proof is invented evidence that other people are buying, watching or endorsing something - "37 people are viewing this right now", fabricated reviews, a fake "just purchased" popup - manufactured to borrow the persuasive weight of the crowd when no real crowd exists. It counterfeits the genuine signal that real social proof carries.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Bait and switch
Bait and switch is advertising one thing and delivering another - a button that promises a free download and hands you a sign-up wall instead. The bait gets the click; the switch is what actually happens.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Drip pricing
Drip pricing advertises a low headline price, then reveals mandatory fees one at a time as you move through checkout - a booking fee here, a service charge there - so the real total only appears at the very end, when you're least likely to leave.
Try the demo -
design ethics
Privacy zuckering
Privacy zuckering tricks users into sharing more than they intend by defaulting settings to 'share', hiding private options behind confusing language and extra clicks. Named after a certain founder, it assumes consent without ever asking for it.
Try the demo
Know these already? Take the design ethics quiz, or revise the terms with flashcards.