Dark Patterns

Dark patterns are malicious design strategies that try to influence people into making decisions that may go against their best interests. We investigate User Awareness and possible Countermeasures to help people deal with these tricky and manipulative designs. We presented some of our very first findings in the publications below.

Research Projects

  

CHI'24 Workshop

We co-organized an amazing workshop on Dark Patterns at ACM CHI'24 in Honolulu. You can find more details in the list of accepted workshops at CHI'24 and in our workshop proposal paper below. Additional information on the workshop and the accepted papers can be found here: https://chi2024.darkpatternsresearchandimpact.com

Posters

Contact

If you have any questions about our research on dark patterns, please contact René Schäfer.

René
Schäfer

Team

René
Schäfer

Paul
Preuschoff

Sarah
Sahabi

Kevin
Fiedler

Sophie
Hahn

Lucia
Karl

Prof. Dr. Jan
Borchers

Publications

    2024

  • René Schäfer, Sarah Sahabi, Annabell Brocker and Jan Borchers. Growing Up With Dark Patterns: How Children Perceive Malicious User Interface Designs.  In Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, NordiCHI' 24, pages 17, Association for Computing Machinery, October 2024.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Anubhav Punetha. Dark Patterns in User Interfaces: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, October 2024.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Alexander Löbel, René Schäfer, Hanna Püschel, Esra Güney and Ulrike Meyer. Access Your Data... If You Can: An Analysis of Dark Patterns Against the Right of Access on Popular Websites.  In Privacy Technologies and Policy, APF 2024, pages 23–47, Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, August 2024.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Moritz Failing. Exploring the Effect of Bright Patterns on Dark Pattern Perception. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, June 2024.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Colin M Gray, Johanna Gunawan, René Schäfer, Nataliia Bielova, Lorena Sánchez Chamorro, Katie Seaborn, Thomas Mildner and Hauke Sandhaus. Mobilizing Research and Regulatory Action on Dark Patterns and Deceptive Design Practices.  In Extended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA '24, pages 6, Association for Computing Machinery, May 2024.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • René Schäfer, Paul Preuschoff, René Röpke, Sarah Sahabi and Jan Borchers. Fighting Malicious Designs: Towards Visual Countermeasures Against Dark Patterns.  In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI' 24, pages 13, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, May 2024.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Viola Valery Johanna Graf. Designing a Modular Browser Extension for Visual Countermeasures Against Dark Patterns. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, April 2024.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Kevin Fiedler. Exploring Game Mechanics for the Design of Dark Pattern Learning Games. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, March 2024.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Kerem Ubeyd Yavuz. Digital Natives' Dilemma: How Gen Z Perceives Deceptive Designs. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, March 2024.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Nele Zielke. Exploring Dark Pattern Research within CHI: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, March 2024.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Florian Plümäkers. Developing a Tool for the Systematic Recording of Dark Patterns in the Web. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, February 2024.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • 2023

  • René Schäfer, Paul Miles Preuschoff and Jan Borchers. Investigating Visual Countermeasures Against Dark Patterns in User Interfaces.  In Mensch Und Computer 2023, MuC '23, pages 161–172, Association for Computing Machinery, September 2023.
    HomepagePDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Paul Miles Preuschoff. Designing Countermeasures Against Dark Patterns in User Interfaces. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, August 2023.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry
  • Sarah Sahabi. Prevalent Dark Patterns: Investigating Children's Mental Models of Malicious Designs. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, July 2023.
    PDF DocumentBibTeX Entry

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