Ethical Crossroads: Is Your UX Design Helping or Hurting?

Let’s talk dark patterns, the designer’s dilemma, and building a better digital world

Have you ever found yourself on a website with a simple goal yet ended up sidetracked by endless recommendations and pop-ups?

We’ve all been there. This common experience reveals the immense power of design choices, both intentional and accidental, to subtly shape our online experiences.

While every click offers insight to designers, what lessons are we learning as an industry?

My desk isn’t cluttered with fancy awards or framed patents. Instead, it’s covered in sticky notes — feedback from real people who navigate the digital world through designs I’ve shaped. Sometimes, reading a heartfelt “This app helps me stay connected to my family!” feels like the biggest win. Other days, a frustrated “Can’t find anything on this site!” stings more than any harsh data metric. Every mark is a reminder: design isn’t just about the ‘perfect’ interface, it’s about creating spaces where people feel empowered, not manipulated. That journey isn’t without its hiccups, and my own ‘a-ha!’ moments came years into my career. Yet, if these messy notes show anything, it’s that we CAN shift towards design that serves our well-being as much as the bottom line. It starts with small choices, but together those create a user experience revolution worth getting excited about.

Design Meets Psychology: Harnessing Colour & Emotion

Every colour choice, button placement, even the size and speed of animations — it’s all meticulously planned to shape our experience. Design can make online life simpler, or it can become a minefield of psychological triggers designed to keep us clicking, buying, and scrolling. Consider something as fundamental as colour. Studies show that we naturally associate warm colours like red and orange with urgency and excitement, while blues and greens often feel calming and trustworthy. Manipulative designers exploit these subconscious associations. A flash sale banner in fiery red isn’t just eye-catching— it taps into our sense of missing out. Contrast that with a ‘customer support’ button designed in pale blue to instil a sense of security. However, it’s important to remember that the interpretation of colour varies across cultures. What signals danger in one context might symbolise luck in another. Ethical designers consider these cultural nuances to ensure their designs are respectful and effective for global audiences.

“Colour isn’t just decoration, it’s a language designers use to speak to our subconscious.”

Your Brain as the Target

It’s easy to understand how this happens. Designers pore over statistics, obsessed with those all-important metrics. It’s tempting to prioritise tricks that boost clicks and engagement over providing user-friendly experiences. After all, if a sneaky pop-up gets results, who cares about its moral implications, right? Wrong.

“When metrics outweigh people, your online experience isn’t designed for YOU.”

Let’s Get Real

We can all pinpoint design trickery — those annoying pop-ups that hijack our attention, or the way that “recommended for you” sections seem to magically predict our desires (or worse, create them). But dark patterns go deeper:

Confusing menus that hide options we need
Countdown timers that trigger panic buying
Fake reviews that sway our decisions

…they’re everywhere.

Ethics Matter: The Pinocchio Factor

The difference between “persuasive design” and outright manipulation lies in intent. Is the website transparent about its goals? Are they upfront in letting us control our experience? Or are they exploiting psychological vulnerabilities to prioritise quick gains over our well-being? Ethics have to be in the equation.

The worst part? Constant manipulation takes a toll — wasted time, money misspent, even contributing to unhealthy anxieties and addictive behaviours. It’s not just annoying, it’s ultimately harmful.

“Honest design builds trust, manipulative design destroys it.”

More Than Just Pop-Ups: Journey by Design

The dark side of UX stretches far beyond simple annoyances. Designers can cleverly orchestrate entire journeys through websites or apps, leading us through paths designed to optimize metrics, not empower our free choices. The very idea of “choice architecture” in design sounds helpful, but in the wrong hands, it becomes a powerful tool for control.

“Choice is an illusion if the path has only one profitable outcome.”

Vulnerabilities Exposed: Protecting Those Most at Risk

It’s crucial to acknowledge that manipulative design practices often disproportionately impact already vulnerable groups. Older folks, those new to technology, and people with certain disabilities become easier targets due to limited digital literacy or specific cognitive differences. This is not only unethical, it undermines the internet’s promise of a truly accessible and inclusive experience for everyone.

History’s Cautionary Tale: Lessons from the Past

“History may not repeat…but designers must ensure its worst ideas don’t get an upgrade.”

Ken Heyman-Woodfin Camp and Associates B.F. Skinner. CH-745–003-A. Woodfin Camp and Associates, Incorporated 7th Floor 341 West 38th Street New York

Attempts to shape human behaviour through stimuli and calculated interventions aren’t new. Look at B.F. Skinner’s controversial behavioural experiments or the eerily persuasive techniques of early advertisers. Today’s tech and data analytics give designers unprecedented power, and we must make sure that power is used for good, not as a modern echo of these exploitive practices.

Fellow designers, I know how frustrating it can be when our drive for excellent user experiences clashes with an organization’s less mature design process. But don’t lose heart! We can be agents of change. Here’s a roadmap to guide your efforts:

Understand the Gaps: Start by assessing your organization’s design maturity. This will help you tailor your advocacy strategies later.
Make User Needs Central: Remind everyone why good design matters. Share case studies, highlight research findings, and always put the user first.
Prove Design = Business Success: Calculate the potential ROI of improved design in terms your stakeholders will understand.
Foster Collaboration: Work closely with other teams. Share your knowledge, listen to their perspectives, and show them how design empowers them to do their jobs better.
Aim for Strategic Design: Push design beyond mere aesthetics. Propose tools like design systems and advocate for user-focused product roadmapping.
Walk the Talk: Ensure your own work reflects the highest UX standards. Mentor others, document your process, and always be open to feedback.

The path might be uphill, but each success, big or small, moves your organization closer to a design-conscious, user-centric culture. Together, we can make it happen!

Become a Dark Pattern Detective. Let’s empower ourselves against manipulative design! Learning to spot dark patterns is the first step. Websites like Harry Brignull’s offer a comprehensive catalog of these tricks, helping you become a more aware user [Brignull, 2009]. Don’t hesitate to speak out against shady practices — report them to consumer protection groups or online watchdogs. By supporting companies that prioritize transparency and honest user experiences, we vote with our clicks for a better digital world.

As designers, we carry an even greater responsibility to ensure our work benefits, not exploits, users. User advocacy and championing ethical design practices aren’t just the nice thing to do, they’re essential for building a trustworthy internet for everyone.

“Bad design spreads like weeds. Good design starts with users who say NO to manipulation.”

Let’s celebrate the wins! Tag user-centric designs that truly champion the user with #EthicalDesignWins

Thank you for reading! Did this article resonate with your experiences? If you found the content helpful, consider giving it a few claps 👏🏻👏🏿👏🏽👏 and sharing your own thoughts or questions in the comments. Let’s spark a conversation!