ABSTRACT
Dark patterns are the deceptive User eXperience (UX) design that is intended to trick and mislead players or users to do something they might not do otherwise. Dark patterns began appearing on a broader scale with the rise of the e-commerce industry worldwide, when the retailers and marketers could provide social media offerings and deals to capture more people, generate more revenues, get subscriptions and hit a targeted number of transactions. A similar trend is seen in the gamification context where such designers are using creative yet deceiving UX to manipulate user behavior and achieve their objectives. This chapter establishes the notion that a dark patterns-oriented strategy is not an ethical and desired practice and how gamification designers must be responsible for their actions, while focusing on establishing transparency with the users rather than manipulating them.
