An Ontology of Dark Patterns Knowledge: Foundations, Definitions, and a Pathway for Shared Knowledge-Building

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gray, Colin M., Santos, Cristiana, Bielova, Nataliia, Mildner, Thomas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Gray, Colin M.
Santos, Cristiana
Bielova, Nataliia
Mildner, Thomas
author_facet Gray, Colin M.
Santos, Cristiana
Bielova, Nataliia
Mildner, Thomas
contents Deceptive and coercive design practices are increasingly used by companies to extract profit, harvest data, and limit consumer choice. Dark patterns represent the most common contemporary amalgamation of these problematic practices, connecting designers, technologists, scholars, regulators, and legal professionals in transdisciplinary dialogue. However, a lack of universally accepted definitions across the academic, legislative and regulatory space has likely limited the impact that scholarship on dark patterns might have in supporting sanctions and evolved design practices. In this paper, we seek to support the development of a shared language of dark patterns, harmonizing ten existing regulatory and academic taxonomies of dark patterns and proposing a three-level ontology with standardized definitions for 65 synthesized dark patterns types across low-, meso-, and high-level patterns. We illustrate how this ontology can support translational research and regulatory action, including pathways to extend our initial types through new empirical work and map across application domains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_09640
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Ontology of Dark Patterns Knowledge: Foundations, Definitions, and a Pathway for Shared Knowledge-Building
Gray, Colin M.
Santos, Cristiana
Bielova, Nataliia
Mildner, Thomas
Human-Computer Interaction
Deceptive and coercive design practices are increasingly used by companies to extract profit, harvest data, and limit consumer choice. Dark patterns represent the most common contemporary amalgamation of these problematic practices, connecting designers, technologists, scholars, regulators, and legal professionals in transdisciplinary dialogue. However, a lack of universally accepted definitions across the academic, legislative and regulatory space has likely limited the impact that scholarship on dark patterns might have in supporting sanctions and evolved design practices. In this paper, we seek to support the development of a shared language of dark patterns, harmonizing ten existing regulatory and academic taxonomies of dark patterns and proposing a three-level ontology with standardized definitions for 65 synthesized dark patterns types across low-, meso-, and high-level patterns. We illustrate how this ontology can support translational research and regulatory action, including pathways to extend our initial types through new empirical work and map across application domains.
title An Ontology of Dark Patterns Knowledge: Foundations, Definitions, and a Pathway for Shared Knowledge-Building
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.09640