The effect of 'dark patterns' of UX design on user experience and willingness to repurchase

Abstract

Background 'Dark Patterns of UX Design' is a user experience design that misleads or tricks users to execute something by deceiving users or hiding necessary information. Sometimes the deception may seem like design mistakes of the system, but it is meticulously designed based on an understanding of human psychology. In this paper we renamed Brignull's 'Dark Patterns' as 'User Deception Design' in Korean and empirically investigated user experience of the 'unsubscription and refund' process, which is a representative example of a user deception design. Methods The experiment was conducted in a face-to-face experiment with 100 male and female South Korean (hereafter, Korean) users to study user deception design, which typically appears in the process of termination and refund of digital music services. Prototypes were produced for this experiment and participants performed unsubscription and refund tasks by using the protypes. The differences of user task performance and experience according to user deception design types, a correlation between user experience elements in user deception design types, and the effects of user experience elements on repurchase intention, were investigated for this experiment. One-way ANOVA, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were used to demonstrate the research problems. Results First, the differences of user task performance and experience according to user deception design types were found statistically in all types. Second, the correlation between 'emotional experience-repurchase intention' was found to be the strongest in all types, but at the types of 'Interface interference' and 'Forced action', no significant correlation was found between 'visual experience-repurchase intention'. Third, in the types of 'Nagging', 'Obstruction', and 'Interface interference', visual and procedural experiences are most likely to influence repurchase intention. In the types of 'Sneaking' and 'Forced action', only the emotional experience influenced the repurchase intention. Overall, the difference in user experience occurs depending on whether the user's goal achievement is completed within the mobile service ('Nagging', 'Obstruction', and 'Interface interference'), or extended to the outside of the service ('Sneaking' and 'Forced Action'). Furthermore, it was found that this difference has a significant influence in determining repurchase of the service. Conclusions This study introduced the concept of 'user deception design' and its types, which was not well known and was lacking in research in South Korea. In addition, beyond the collection and classification of cases, this user's empirical research has statistically revealed the differences of user task performance and experience, the correlation between them, and the influential relationships to the intention to repurchase according to user deception design types. Through this study, we expect that the design ethics discourse and discussion in the field of UX and HCI will be more actively expanded.