But will you ever reject the cookies? Stress & decision-making with deceptive User Experience design patterns

Ruth Hoffmann
Friday 17 March 2023

Have you come across frustrating pop-ups asking for permission to use cookies (e.g. blocking half the webpage you’re trying to access)? This is no accident – they try to discourage you from clicking reject by using web design tactics based in psychology. These techniques are termed “Dark” User Experience design patterns – they are surprisingly common across the internet, not only in cookies. In my study, I explored whether dealing with these pop-ups can affect your stress level and decision-making efficiency. If this extra mental effort affects us in isolation at the scale of my experiment, then imagine how much stress bad website design could add to our lives. 

Keywords

HCI, UX Design, Stress, Decision Making, Psychology

Staff

[Kenneth Boyd]{kmb6}

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