Into the Dark World of User Experience: A Cognitive Walkthrough Study

In this age of AI, the unison of man and machine is going to be more prominent than ever, thus creating a need to understand the underlying framework that is adopted by app designers and developers from a psychological point of view. Research on the various benefits and harmful effects of user experience design and furthermore developing interventions and regulations to moderate the use of dark strategies in digital tools is the need of the hour. This paper calls for an ethical consideration of designing the experience of users by looking at the unethical practices that exist currently. The purpose of the study was to understand the cognitive, behavioural and affective experience of dark patterns in end users. There is a scarcity in the scientific literature with regard to dark patterns. This paper adopts the methodology of user cognitive walkthrough with 6 participants whose transcripts were analysed using thematic network analyses. The results are presented in the form of a thematic network. A few examples of the themes found are the experience of manipulation in users, rebellious attitudes, and automatic or habitual responses. These findings provide a basis for an in-depth understanding of dark patterns in user experience and provide themes that will help future researchers and designers develop ethical and more enriching user experiences for users.