--- title: "Dark Patterns" url: "https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/dark-patterns" language: "en" description: "What are dark patterns in UX design? A plain-language explanation with examples, the legal situation and tips. Learn how to design fair interfaces." published: "2026-10-14T09:50:31+02:00" updated: "2026-10-14T13:13:38+02:00" --- # Dark Patterns Dark patterns are design tricks that push people into decisions they don’t actually want to make, like hidden cancellation options or preselected add-ons. - **Buchstabe:** D UX glossary # Dark Patterns Dark patterns are design tricks that push people into decisions they don’t actually want to make, like hidden cancellation options or preselected add-ons. Imagine you want to cancel a streaming subscription. In the app, all you find is “Manage subscription,” then a gray link labeled “More options,” followed by three pages of discount offers, and finally a button that says “I’ll give up my benefits.” Signing up took two clicks. Canceling takes ten minutes and a lot of patience. ## Explained simply Dark patterns are design tricks that push people into decisions they don’t really want to make. They exploit well-known mental shortcuts, such as the fact that we rarely change default settings or that we look less carefully when we’re under time pressure. Think of a supermarket that deliberately hides the exit behind the candy aisle and prints the exit signs small and faded. British UX designer Harry Brignull coined the term in 2010 and published a collection of examples. Today he calls them *deceptive patterns*. Both terms mean the same thing. ## Common types Some patterns show up especially often: - **Hidden costs:** Fees only appear in the last step of checkout. - **Hard to cancel:** Signing up is quick, but leaving takes you through a maze. - **Preselected add-ons:** Insurance or a newsletter is already checked. - **Fake urgency:** Countdowns or messages like “Only 1 room left” with nothing real behind them. - **Confirmshaming:** The decline button says something like “No thanks, I prefer paying more.” How widespread these tricks are became clear in a 2019 study by a team led by Arunesh Mathur at Princeton University. They crawled around 11,000 shopping websites and found 1,818 instances of dark patterns. For more examples and countermeasures, read [Spotting and Avoiding Dark Patterns: Why Interface Tricks Cost You](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/blog/spotting-and-avoiding-dark-patterns). ## What the law says There’s currently no single EU law that bans all dark patterns. Several rules apply in different places, though. Article 25 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) prohibits online platforms from designing their interfaces in ways that deceive or manipulate people. However, it only applies where the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive or the GDPR don’t already cover the practice. For cookies and tracking, data protection law and the EU cookie rules require freely given consent. In late 2021, the French data protection authority CNIL fined Google and Facebook because rejecting cookies on their sites took more effort than accepting them. In Germany, Section 312k of the German Civil Code (BGB) has required a clearly legible, easy-to-reach cancellation button for many online subscriptions since July 2022. The European Commission has also announced a Digital Fairness Act intended to address dark patterns more directly. As of October 2026, it hasn’t been adopted. This overview isn’t legal advice. ## An example Here’s an example. An online store asks at checkout, “Don’t want to miss any deals?” with the box already checked. Many people only realize later that they’ve signed up for the newsletter, and they unsubscribe in frustration. After the redesign, the box is unchecked and clearly labeled: “Yes, send me the newsletter (unsubscribe anytime).” Fewer people sign up, but the ones who do actually read the emails. ## In practice - **Make the exit as easy as the entrance.** Canceling, unsubscribing, and declining shouldn’t take more steps than agreeing. - **Keep the wording neutral.** Label options factually and as equals. Good [microcopy](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/microcopy) explains instead of applying pressure. - **Question your metrics.** If a test only measures short-term clicks, the tricks will easily win. Keep an eye on cancellations, complaints, and returns as well. ## Related terms [Microcopy](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/microcopy), [Mental Model](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/mental-model), [A/B Testing](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/a-b-testing) ## Sources - [Harry Brignull: Deceptive Patterns. deceptive.design](https://www.deceptive.design/) - [Arunesh Mathur et al.: Dark Patterns at Scale: Findings from a Crawl of 11K Shopping Websites. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2019](https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.07032) - [Data Protection Report: Rejecting cookies should be as easy as accepting cookies: new sanctions by the French authority CNIL. Norton Rose Fulbright, 2022](https://www.dataprotectionreport.com/2022/02/rejecting-cookies-should-be-as-easy-as-accepting-cookies-new-sanctions-by-the-french-authority-cnil) - [European Union: Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act). Official Journal of the EU, 2022](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj) - [German Federal Ministry of Justice: Section 312k BGB, cancellation of consumer contracts in electronic commerce. Gesetze im Internet (in German)](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__312k.html) ## More terms [ ### A/B Testing An A/B test is an experiment that shows two versions of a page or element at the same time to randomly split groups of visitors. It lets you decide with real data which version works better. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/a-b-testing) [ ### ARIA ARIA is a W3C standard that adds roles, states and properties to HTML. It tells screen readers what an element is and how it currently behaves. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/aria) [ ### Accessibility Accessibility means designing websites, apps and digital documents so that everyone can use them, including people with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/accessibility) [ ### Affordance An affordance describes what action an object makes possible and whether people can recognize it: a button invites you to press it, a handle invites you to pull. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/affordance) [ ### Alt Text Alt text is a short text version of an image, stored in the HTML alt attribute. Screen readers read it aloud so people who can’t see the image get the same information. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/alt-text) [ ### Atomic Design Atomic Design is a method for building user interfaces from small, reusable building blocks, from single elements like buttons all the way up to complete pages. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/atomic-design) [ ### BFSG The BFSG, Germany’s Accessibility Strengthening Act, has required many companies since 28 June 2025 to make certain products and digital services, such as online shops, accessible. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/bfsg) [ ### Card Sorting Card sorting is a research method in which people sort terms written on cards into groups. It shows you how they mentally organize content, so you can plan navigation that makes sense to them. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/card-sorting) [ ### Cognitive Load Cognitive load is the mental effort it takes to understand and use an interface. The less unnecessary thinking a design demands, the easier the actual task becomes. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/cognitive-load) [ ### Color Vision Deficiency A color vision deficiency means someone has a harder time telling certain colors apart than most people. The most common type is red-green deficiency. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/color-vision-deficiency) [ ### Contextual Inquiry Contextual inquiry is a research method where you observe and interview people in their real work environment. It shows you how they actually get tasks done, not just how they describe it. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/contextual-inquiry) [ ### Contrast Ratio The contrast ratio describes how much two colors differ in brightness, such as text and background. WCAG requires at least 4.5:1 for normal text. ](https://www.insideuxdesign.com/en/glossar/contrast-ratio)