Rohan Gupta of R Systems sees the value of building UI with an eye out for dark patterns at the development stage. In fact, R Systems has incorporated detecting and rating dark patterns into its development process for clients.

Gupta, the vice president of cloud security and DevOps at R Systems, spoke with The New Stack about how the digital product engineering company deals with dark patterns.

It actually began with clients. Small startups came to the company because they wanted to take their applications to the cloud. Optimizing for the cloud revealed dark patterns the clients were using. R Systems found deceptive practices such as a subscription trap and false urgency, which is when a site pressures users to add items to a cart by telling the user there are just a few of the items in stock.

A dark pattern audit is now a mandatory step for the company. The company documents dark patterns, attaching a risk level to each and a note about which compliance severity the pattern falls under, he said.

“It’s part of a compliance step to hit for dark patterns,” he said. “We integrate it in the development pipeline itself.”

Every feature release has a compliance report attached to it, which identifies the dark patterns, he said. Checking for dark patterns has become a part of the company’s culture, he added.

“We help companies, when they’re building, to come up with a pipeline that would help it become more ethical and detect more dark patterns sooner than [when] they roll out the products,” he said.

A Framework For Avoiding Dark Patterns

R Systems chose to deal with dark patterns head-on, but that’s not always how businesses respond.

Doing the right thing isn’t always a motivation for businesses, which are concerned about profit targets and ROI, according to Selam Moges, a software engineer with Apella, which creates technology for surgeons.

She spoke on “Deconstructing Dark Patterns: Ethical Design Principles for React Developers” at last month’s International JavaScript Conference, held by Devmio.

Moges challenged the web developer audience at the conference: “I’ve seen how design can track users through confusing flows, delayed friction and hidden consequences. But what would it look like to build the opposite?”

She offered a new framework that identifies dark patterns by walking developers through a five-step process during the development cycle. She calls it the CLEAR framework. [Editor’s note: CLEAR also refers to a digital accessibility framework that’s useful for addressing accessibility problems.]

**Consent. **Products and services should be built with consent, she said. Developers shouldn’t assume that users want any product or service, but should give them a clear path to opt in or out.

Legibility. Clear and honest labeling is key to avoiding dark patterns, she said.

Empowerment. The website or app should give control to users so they can act independently and without shame. ”The goal is that users should have the ability to take and reverse actions easily and confidently, so a visible self-serve cancellation button is an example of empowerment,” she said. “Let users decline without that guilt or sarcasm.”

Accessibility. “Although inaccessible UI is technically not considered a dark pattern,” she said, “I wanted to highlight it here, because we should still make things that everyone can actually use.”

Respect. This means designing in a way that respects the user’s autonomy, intention and intelligence, she said. “It’s about not manipulating, not [about] hiding choices, and not [about] prioritizing conversion over consent,” she said. “And again, what that looks like is just using honest, non-coercive language in your CTAs (call to action) so CLEAR gives us that North Star, a shared language for what ethical design should look like.”

“The core idea is that when users feel respected and in control, they’re more likely to stay, return and recommend your product,” Moges said. “User trust and adoption is gained through three ways: One, through consent; two, clarity in what you’re asking; and three, empowering the user to make an informed decision.”

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