The Impossible Game: An Exploration of Dark Patterns Virginia Gilliland

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Imagine this: you are in the middle of reading an article about the rising COVID cases in your area and a pop-up ad appears right in the middle of the screen. It’s annoying, but you see an “x” and click on it to exit the ad and resume reading. However, to your surprise – the ad doesn’t close! How annoying. This frustrating experience is due to dark patterns: a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills (Brignall).

The following game explores the frustrations of these dark patterns. To win the game, the user must successfully navigate tasks exemplifying dark patterns. The first task plays off user expectation of buttons. Instead of closing the ad by clicking an x as they would expect, they have to click the register button. The second task explores how companies use deceptive wording when users attempt to unsubscribe from email lists. They are all quite confusing, but the correct answer to completely get out of the email service is “It’s just not working out.” The final task explores the dark pattern of forced continuity where subscription services craft websites so it encourages people to continue using their service even if they only want the free trial. This one is especially confusing, and the correct answer is to click the “audit” button.