Dark Patterns

Catalog description

This class provides students with an introduction to dark patterns, what they are and how to find/classify them, and challenges students to propose technological and design solutions, legal interventions, and opportunities for civil society participants to act to limit the harms of dark patterns. Students will conduct targeted research on dark patterns in civil society contexts, e.g. within fundraising practices for political and charitable action, media subscription practices, and service domains focused on vulnerable populations. The class uses the Dark Patterns Tip Line as a resource for finding and classifying dark patterns. We also will explore how dark patterns are extending beyond the realm of User Experience (UX) where they have been studied most thoroughly and into the realms of algorithmic decision making, physical interactions and disparate harms.