Last weekend, I came across an interesting example of a dark pattern. If you’ve not heard the term before, a ‘dark pattern’ is a user interface that has been deliberately designed to trick people.

In my case, I launched the Flixster mobile app to check some film times and saw a large ‘new message’ banner, designed to look like a text message alert.

I instinctively reached up to tap it before my conscious thought process kicked in and stopped me. Why was I seeing a text message notification inside Flixster?

At this point, the alert disappeared to be replaced by a more conventional banner and I realised that I had been tricked.

This is a profoundly stupid piece of design, as it generates a very negative emotional response. People don’t like to be tricked – it makes them angry.

A bit of research revealed that this was – not surprisingly – a Google AdSense banner. It clearly violates their program policies, so will hopefully be removed. But not quickly. The ad is still being served in the app today, 3 days later.

This example shows the importance of monitoring third-party content every day and acting quickly to fix any issues. It also shows the profound impact that a dark pattern can have on brand credibility. I now trust Flixster less than I did and think twice before launching their app.