You’ve seen them before. Pop-ups with tiny X’s that make a window hard to close. Buttons and toggles in permissions boxes that are so confusing it’s difficult to understand what you’re agreeing to.

Even if you’ve never heard the term “dark pattern” before, you’ve likely come across one. Consumer Reports provides a list of examples in a tweet, and on the tip line’s site, but there are entire ...

You may not be familiar with the term “dark patterns” but the manipulative design phenomenon is ubiquitous in the apps and services we use every day. Dark patterns nudge consumers to make choices that ...

To learn more about our editorial approach, explore The Direct Message methodology. I watched a colleague spend three hours last week testing seventeen variations of the same subject line. She ...