Discover a variety of dark pattern examples, sorted by category, to better understand deceptive design practices.
Bait and Switch
1 case
What's a bait and switch? This tactic lures users with an enticing offer, only to change the terms unexpectedly. The original promise often has hidden conditions, misleading users into commitments they didn't intend, eroding trust.
Confirmshaming
4 cases
What's confirmshaming? When a product or a service is guilting or shaming a user for not signing up for some product or service.
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Oodie: Online shopping guilt
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Wish.com Confirmashaming dark pattern
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Microsoft: Nasty Edge Browser ad
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Dailylook.com: Subscribe, or you'll be shamed
Disguised Ads
2 cases
What's a Disguised Ad? When an advertisement on a website pretends to be a UI element and makes you click on it to forward you to another website.
Fake Scarcity
1 case
What's fake scarcity? It's a marketing tactic that creates a false sense of limited availability of a product or service, pushing users to act quickly out of fear of missing out. This usually achieved by displaying misleading messages about low stock levels or high demand.
Hidden Costs
5 cases
What's a hidden cost? At the last stage of your checkout process, you would see some additional charges that were added to your final bill without mentioning them in previous steps. (i.e. delivery charges, taxes, etc.)
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The Globe and Mail: One ad, two prices
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HashiCorp: One plan, two prices
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Toronto Star: Price matters
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StorageMart: Adds the cost without mentioning it to you
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Bloomen: Flowers with additional charge during checkout
Misdirection
22 cases
What's a misdirection? A flow or a UI element is designed in a way to trick your attention to distract you from the desired action (i.e. using smaller contrast color on primary buttons).
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Amazon: How to cancel Audible subscription?
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TradingView: Emotional subscription cancellation
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DoorDash: How to cancel DashPass subscription?
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HelloFresh: How to cancel HelloFresh subscription?
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Dribbble: Dark patterns in subscription cancellation
Nagging
2 cases
What's nagging? Nagging bother users with constant interruptions. Over time, this pressure can make users give in to these requests, even if it's not in their best interest.
Obstruction
2 cases
What's obstruction? When users try to accomplish something, they encounter unnecessary obstacles or roadblocks that make it difficult to get what they need.
Preselection
3 cases
What's preselection? The user is given a pre-selected option that influence or avoid the decision-making process.
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Phosus: Pre-selected newsletter updates
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Groww: Checkbox preselection for credit score check
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X: Your data - our data
Privacy Zuckering
4 cases
What's privacy zuckering? A service or a website tricks you into sharing more information with it than you really want to.
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Redis.com: "Free" ebooks
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Samsung: Forcing promotional emails
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Ryanair – when every page is a dark pattern
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Shaw.ca: Sign up only by receiving promotions
Roach Motel
12 cases
What's a roach motel? This dark pattern is usually used for subscription services. It is easy to sign up for it, but it's much harder to cancel it (i.e. you have to call customer support).
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Amazon: How to cancel Audible subscription?
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LinkedIn: How to cancel LinkedIn Premium subscription?
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DoorDash: How to cancel DashPass subscription?
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HelloFresh: How to cancel HelloFresh subscription?
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Dribbble: Dark patterns in subscription cancellation
Sneak into Basket
2 cases
What's a sneak into basket? When buying something, during your checkout, a website adds some additional items to your cart, making you take the action of removing it from your cart.
Trick Questions
2 cases
What's a trick questions? Common pattern used during sign-up flows. Usually, these are checkboxes located at the end of a form. At first glance, they all mean the same thing, but after the second reading, you see a completely different meaning.