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Last year I did a talk called Ethics & Email Marketing at an @ActionRocket event. One section called out a bunch of #DarkPatternsOfEmail.
I haven’t stopped thinking about them since, and new examples pop up all the time. I’m going to collect them here in a running thread.
I haven’t stopped thinking about them since, and new examples pop up all the time. I’m going to collect them here in a running thread.
First up, a few from my slides.
Manually adding “Re:” at the front of a subject line to trick the recipient into thinking they’ve previously interacted with the sender.
#DarkPatternsOfEmail
Manually adding “Re:” at the front of a subject line to trick the recipient into thinking they’ve previously interacted with the sender.
#DarkPatternsOfEmail
Changing the sender name to something like this, again to trick the recipient into thinking there was previous communication. (“Me” being the recipient’s self in this case.)
#DarkPatternsOfEmail
#DarkPatternsOfEmail
Confirm shaming, a classic. Many examples of this in the wild here: https://cruelestoptouts.tumblr.com/
#DarkPatternsOfEmail
#DarkPatternsOfEmail
A confusing subscription preference centre here. This is designed to confuse the subscriber into selecting “no,” which will keep them opted in.
#DarkPatternsOfEmail https://twitter.com/TedGoas/status/1333535570702856194
#DarkPatternsOfEmail https://twitter.com/TedGoas/status/1333535570702856194
Similar to the fake reply, MealPal made it look like they were replying to a customer support case the recipient had never started.
#DarkPatternsOfEmail https://twitter.com/iamelliot/status/1153271598201430016
#DarkPatternsOfEmail https://twitter.com/iamelliot/status/1153271598201430016
I never would have expected this from him.
#DarkPatternsOfEmail https://twitter.com/krudz/status/1334173005996560386
#DarkPatternsOfEmail https://twitter.com/krudz/status/1334173005996560386
Abandoned cart dressed up as order confirmation. This is next-level awful. Think about the user’s context — they certainly did NOT want to complete the checkout, so this is just panic-inducing.
#DarkPatternsOfEmail https://twitter.com/cjboake/status/1333956042007437319
#DarkPatternsOfEmail https://twitter.com/cjboake/status/1333956042007437319
This unsubscribe page takes the common pattern of having to confirm your email address and flips it so that the confirmation keeps recipients subscribed instead. They've buried the actual opt-out link in small text.
#DarkPatternsOfEmail
#DarkPatternsOfEmail
