Dark Pattern

A dark pattern is a design trick that steers you into something you didn't mean to choose, like a cancel page where the button to stay is huge and the way out is buried in fine print.

You've met this screen. You came to cancel, and instead you get "Before you cancel," a reminder of everything you'll lose, a big dark "Keep my subscription" button, and a softer offer to pause for a month instead. The actual exit is hiding in the legal text at the bottom, "Continue to cancel," set in tiny gray type that fails every contrast rule on purpose. Everything you need is technically on the screen. The design just makes the choice the company wants effortless and the choice you want a scavenger hunt.

The tricks have names. Confirmation shaming is the guilt-trip copy. The roach motel is easy to get into and hard to leave. Pre-checked boxes sneak extras into your order. What separates all of them from ordinary bad design is intent: a dark pattern is competent design aimed at you.

UX researcher Harry Brignull coined the term in 2010, and you'll also hear "deceptive patterns," which is what Brignull himself renamed them, partly because the new name says exactly what they are. Regulators use that language too; the FTC sued Amazon over how hard Prime was to cancel.

When a screen offers a loud way to stay and hides the quiet way out, you now know what to call it. Naming it out loud in a design review is usually enough to kill it.