{"id":1408,"date":"2011-04-20T19:36:46","date_gmt":"2011-04-20T18:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/?p=1408"},"modified":"2019-11-06T17:45:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T16:45:00","slug":"dark-pattern-redsave-chairman-mao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/20\/dark-pattern-redsave-chairman-mao\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Pattern – RedSave & Chairman Mao"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Brignull has introduced the idea of Dark Patterns \u2013 website\u2019s using UX principles to promote business goals over the end-user\u2019s experience. When shopping online for a replacement watch, I stumbled upon a particularly nasty one. I thought I\u2019d share:<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with some back-story. While in Hong Kong recently, I found the most amazing watch I could possibly imagine. It\u2019s Chairman Mao, and it waves with each second. I had to have it, and bought it straight away from the local market.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Chairman

Hi There!<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\nProbably because I bought it from a market, it\u2019d broken before I got back to the UK \u2013 it wouldn\u2019t wind up, and just stopped waving. I was heartbroken. Watch repair shops refused to touch it (possibly due to the watch\u2019s cheap and nasty nature!). It looked hopeless until I found a shop online which sold the very same watch for just \u00a35. I was once again happy.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the page I was going to buy it from:<\/p>\n

\n\"RedSave\n<\/div>\n

A saving of \u00a325? How could I go wrong? So I added it to my basket:<\/p>\n

\n\"RedSave\n<\/div>\n

Oh hey, I get a free \u2018thing\u2019 too. What\u2019s that? Doesn\u2019t really matter does it, I still get my watch for \u00a35.<\/p>\n

On closer inspection, the other item in the basket is not free. It\u2019s the opposite of free. It\u2019s expensive. It\u2019s a subscription to their \u2018RedSave\u2019 programme, which costs \u00a320 a month. Googling RedSave turns up a wide range of complaints about people who have fallen for this scam, and unwittingly signed up for a monthly charge without realising, and ended up with a huge bill.<\/p>\n

Removing RedSave from your basket jacks up the price of the watch to \u00a330. So, to buy the watch at a reasonabe price, you have to sign-up for this monthly charge. Because of this, and particularly because this transaction is snuck into your basket without advertising the full terms of the deal, this meets the \u201csneak into basket\u201d dark pattern discussed by Harry Brignull. This must surely be bad business sense from a customer experience perspective\u2013 customers are either going to be unhappy because they were forced to sign up for a subscription, or oblivious to the huge charge they\u2019re racking up \u2013 which must be RedSave\u2019s true business goal!<\/p>\n

I still haven\u2019t replaced my watch.<\/p>\n

You can find more examples of Harry\u2019s Dark Patterns here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harry Brignull has introduced the idea of Dark Patterns \u2013 website\u2019s using UX principles to promote business goals over the end-user\u2019s experience. When shopping online for a replacement watch, I stumbled upon a particularly nasty one. I thought I\u2019d share: Let\u2019s start with some back-story. While in Hong Kong recently, I found the most amazing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-1408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-user-research","tag-bad-ux","grve-entry-item","grve-blog-item"],"yoast_head":"\nDark Pattern - RedSave & Chairman Mao - Steve Bromley - User Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/20\/dark-pattern-redsave-chairman-mao\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dark Pattern - RedSave & Chairman Mao - Steve Bromley - User Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harry Brignull has introduced the idea of Dark Patterns \u2013 website\u2019s using UX principles to promote business goals over the end-user\u2019s experience. 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