Skuldsättningen kopplad till konsumtion ökar i det svenska samhället, vilket gått hand i hand med e-handelns framväxt och faktura som populär betalmetod. Betallösningar som tillhandahåller faktura och delbetalning som betalmetoder åt e-handlare har i och med det fått kritik av media och ny lagstiftning mot viss typ av beteendedesign i betallösningarnas tjänster har även införts. Trots samhällsdebatten har det saknats forskning på hur kunder väljer betalmetod och deras upplevelser av påverkan från beteendedesign inom betallösningarna. Denna studie har därför haft som syfte att ge inledande insikter och kunskap om detta. Kvalitativa metoder har använts tillsammans med teori om beteendedesign och hur människor fattar beslut. Specifikt har teorin bestått av Theory of Planned Behaviour och tre typer av beteendedesign - persuasive design, digital nudging och dark patterns. En utvärdering av betallösningarna Klarna och Qliro genomfördes med syfte att identifiera beteendedesign i deras tjänster. Därefter genomfördes intervjuer med användare för att förstå deras beslutsprocess vid val av betalmetod och hur beteendedesign kan tänkas påverka dem i denna kontext. Resultaten visade att informanterna hade ett invant beteende vid val av betalmetod när de genomför köp online. Oavsett om den föredragna betalmetoden var kortbetalning eller faktura verkar valet främst baseras på upplevd kontroll. Hur enkel och trygg betalmetoden känns är de främsta faktorerna som påverkar valet. Beteendedesign tycktes inte ha en direkt påverkan på valet av betalmetod för användarna i denna studie, troligen på grund av att de vanor och attityder som användarna redan har är så pass välgrundade. Om beteendedesign haft en inverkan på hur dessa vanor och attityder har formats från början kan däremot inte resultaten från studien ge svar på. / The amount of debt connected to consumption is increasing in the Swedish society. This increase has coincided with the emergence of e-commerce and invoice as a popular payment method. Payment solutions that provides invoice and installment as payment methods for e-commerce sites has because of this received criticism by media and a new legislation against a certain type of behavioral design in payment solutions has been introduced. Despite the public debate there is a lack of research about how users choose payment method and their experiences about the impact that behavioral design has within this context. The aim of this study was to provide initial insights and knowledge about this topic. Qualitative methods were used together with theory about behavioral design and human decision making. Specifically, Theory of Planned Behavior and three types of behavioral design – persuasive design, digital nudging and dark patterns. An evaluation of the two payment solutions Klarna and Qliro, was carried out to identify behavioral design in their services. This was followed by interviews with users to get an understanding about their decision process when choosing payment method and how behavioral design impact this process. The results showed that the users in this study had a habitual behavioral when it comes to choosing payment method when shopping online. Regardless if the preferred method is invoice or card payment it seems as if the choice is mainly based on perceived control. How easy and safe the payment method feels are the main factors that impacts the choice. Behavioral design does not seem to have a direct impact on the choice of payment method for the users in this study, probably because the habits and attitudes that they already have are well-grounded. However, if behavioral design had an impact in forming the habits and attitudes from the start is something the result from this study cannot answer.

[pt] Nessa tese são investigadas as transformações no ambiente digital circunscritas às interseções entre as novas práticas do marketing e a proteção do consumidor-titular de dados pessoais. O fio condutor é a consolidação da informação como um importante ativo na sociedade de consumo contemporânea. A partir da perspectiva do capitalismo de vigilância, os principais fenômenos que contribuem para o estabelecimento de uma estrutura de estímulos e controles que permeiam, de maneira imperceptível aos olhos do consumidor, a sua jornada de consumo, são analisados. Verifica-se que a publicidade digital, em especial a chamada publicidade comportamental direcionada conforme o perfil do consumidor, apesar de alvo de críticas da doutrina e de interesse por parte da legislação, é apenas a parte visível de uma arquitetura de escolhas permeada por dark patterns que atrapalham a proteção do consumidor em ambiente digital. Nesse cenário, a pesquisa investiga a suficiência dos mecanismos de proteção de dados pessoais, bem como a existência de uma nova e universal vulnerabilidade do consumidor. Trata-se da vulnerabilidade digital, que dá origem a um estado, também universal, de hipossuficiência do consumidor diante das práticas comerciais em ambiente digital. / [en] In this thesis examines the transformations in the digital environment circumscribed to the intersections between new marketing practices and the protection of the consumer-data subjects. The main drive is the strengthening of information as an important asset in contemporary consumer society. From the perspective of surveillance capitalism, it analyzes the central phenomena that contributes to the establishment of a structure of stimuli and controls that permeate, imperceptibly to the consumer s eyes, his journey. It is verified that digital advertising, especially the so-called behavioral advertising, directed according to the consumer s profile, despite being target of criticism by the doctrine and of interest by the legislation, is only the visible part of an architecture of choices permeated by dark patterns that hinder consumer protection in the digital environment. In this scenario, the research investigates the sufficiency of personal data protection mechanisms, as well as the existence of a new and universal consumer vulnerability. Which is the digital vulnerability that gives rise as well to a universal state of consumer hyposufficiency before commercial practices in the digital environment.

Introduction – Confirmshaming is a dark pattern that seeks to shame users into acting differently than they normally would. Purpose – The purpose of his study was to determine if and to what extent confirmshaming influences users to stay subscribed, and through this understand how confirmshaming impacts the user experience and thereby the perception of the companies that utilise it. Method – The method of choice was a qualitative case study that subjected participants to confirmshaming in an unsubscription process through a user test, followed by semi‑structured interviews in order to understand the participants’ behaviour and thoughts after they had been a victim of the tactic. Findings – As a result of the study, we found that confirmshaming during unsubscription processes is an ineffective strategy. A majority of users perceive the companies that employ it in a negative fashion and regard them as unprofessional and desperate. This implicates that confirmshaming in unsubscription processes is a loss-loss situation for both users and companies and should not be used. Limitations – This research was solely a qualitative study that focused on a small group of people. The results cannot be generalised to the general public and should instead be viewed as an introduction to the implications of confirmshaming. Further, the study was limited to the user experience and we did not measure how frequently occurring the phenomenon is.

Dark game design patterns are features used by game creators to manipulate the player to make certain choices. These patterns can lead to unintentional player actions causing negative experiences. In this descriptive user experience study, focused on the mobile game Candy Crush Saga, the dark patterns’ effect on desirability (whether something is fun and engaging) and the players’ decision to quit or continue to be a player due to the patterns were investigated. An online survey, where the participants were asked about their feelings towards five different dark patterns identified within Candy Crush Saga, was conducted and distributed by using Google Forms and Facebook. The survey received 60 responses from current and previous players of the game. The sample was not controlled and rather homogeneous, therefore it was not necessarily representative of the entire Candy Crush Saga audience. The analysis of the gathered data indicated correlation between the use of certain types of dark patterns and decreased desirability. Some variation could be detected between the effects of different dark patterns. Similarly, certain patterns had a stronger impact on the players’ decision to quit being a player and other patterns on the choice to continue. Four out of the five patterns studied were indicated as both a reason to quit for some and a reason to continue for others.  The results offer insight to game developers and businesses about the previously insufficiently studied connection between the dark game design patterns and their direct effects to the users’ perceived experience. It is apparent that a decrease in the use of certain dark patterns would contribute to  a more positive playing experience.

The study is to establish whether there is any impact on the social media company that is implementing the deceptive design on the account deletion process. By conducting the qualitative research with Instagram users and analyzing users’ feelings, opinions, and potential actions, the study finds out using the deceptive design on account deletion process on social media has a weak influence on the social media company.

Previous studies have shown that companies behind applications and websites are using strategic ways of manipulating and misleading their users, often through interface and design. This behavior is described in terms of dark patterns. The main reason for these deceptive ways is to trick users into doing things they may not intended to do from the beginning, for example sharing of personal data and exposing more of their privacy than what is needed for the purpose of the service. Dating through different applications has become a more common way to find love. What these apps usually have in common is the need for gathering personal data from their uses, and in many cases this includes sensitive personal data like sexual orientation. Because of this, the purpose of the study was to examine whether dating apps care for their user’s integrity or also use suspect ways to manipulate through structure, design and content. Five of the most used dating apps in Sweden were observed through a qualitative content analysis with a focus on aspects that are relevant in information architecture. The results showed that all of the apps were using design in manipulative ways and two of them even made it impossible to quit the account after registration. These discoveries really raises questions about whether it is ethical of companies to work in this way and if they care more about their own gain than their users’ integrity.

Bakgrunden till denna uppsats är det ökande intresset av olika designtekniker inom webbdesign. Ämnet som studeras växer och är något som de flesta individer i dagens samhälle kommer i kontakt med. Problemet ligger i att det potentiellt sett finns en baksida med att använda sig av denna typ av designelement. Med tanke på att tidigare forskning inte studerat de potentiella negativa konsekvenserna som finns med detta så väljer vi i vår studie att utforska existensen av dessa potentiella negativa påverkan genom att undersöka hur dark patterns påverkar varumärkeslojaliteten. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att förklara hur dark patterns påverkar konsumenternas varumärkeslojalitet. För att besvara vårt framtagna syfte utformas fyra stycken hypoteser som baseras på tidigare forskning, där dark patterns, oetiskt beteende, attityd och varumärkeslojalitet är våra variabler. Med utgångspunkt i en kvantitativ studie i form av en enkätundersökning testas sedan hypoteserna. Datainsamlingen sker i form av en enkätundersökning där informationen sedan analyseras genom en regressionsanalys. I denna analys undersöks sambandet mellan dark patterns och varumärkeslojalitet genom två medierande variabler; oetiskt beteende samt konsument-attityder. Slutsatsen i denna studie är att de hypoteser som presenteras och är framtagna från den tidigare teorin visar sig vara signifikanta. Data och analysen tillstyrker därav våra hypoteser om att dark patterns resulterar i en minskad varumärkeslojalitet.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore and examine how gameplay experiences differ in the gacha game Genshin Impact (miHoYo, 2020). In particular, there is a focus on the economic systems of the game along with the general play experience. People can have different perspectives as veteran players or newbie players, so the objective is to find differences in how these players approach the reward systems of the game, and how their relationship to these systems is affected. This is done by utilizing a mixed-method approach, using aspects of both formal analysis and autoethnography. It is further explored how players interacted with these economic systems, with a focus on the harder to acquire, premium currency of Primogems. The characteristics of reward systems in Genshin Impact, particularly the content unlocking mechanisms of the game, are discussed further, as they have implications for both types of players. The paper goes deeper into discussing dark design patterns, which are prevalent in the experiences of both players. As Genshin Impact is a large game with a variety of content, this is further explored and related to relevant theory to better facilitate a discussion about possible design implications. By comparing and analyzing the experiences of both players in regards to relevant theory, it was concluded that at a certain point the game no longer concerns itself with rewarding players adequately. This was further compounded by the game offering less and less goals to work towards for players, as they simply run out of meaningful content to do. Players are distracted from this lack of a goal by expertly crafted dark design patterns, introduced to the players in such a way that they have all but no choice, but to engage in these patterns willingly.

The European General Data Protection Regulation has changed how users interact with cookie notices online. The rules state that users consent must be given via a clear, affirmative act and easily withdrawable by the end-user. Dark patterns, a way of tricking a user into giving more consent than needed with the help of, for example,size of objects, text and button colour could be applied to these notices to trick the user into giving more consent than needed. The objective of the thesis study was to develop a scraper in Python which could analyze web pages automatically against a set of created measurable parameters. That means that first, measurable parameters needed to be defined for the scraper, and then, implemented in such a way that it automatically could find and analyze cookie notices. The scraper was implemented in Python with the help of the browser testing libraries called Splinter and Selenium. The results from the experiment showed that the size of the notices was mostly small, but some pages used up the whole page for the notice. The amount of pre-ticked boxes and the readability of the notices also showed usage of dark patterns. The conclusion that can be drawn from the result is that the GDPR and e-Privacydirective have affected the usage in most web pages, as they seem to use some types of dark patterns to trick the user into giving more consent than is needed to be able to use the web page, and with an improved scraper, the result could show even more / <p>Presentation har redan ägt rum på zoom </p>

Persuasive design and dark patterns are types of design that aims to change the attitudes and behaviors of users. This study addresses where and how persuasive design and dark patterns are integrated into a selection of two websites, and what users of a website feel about the design underlying purposes. Persuasive design is an area with a design practice where the focus is on influencing the user's behavior through a product or service's characteristics. A dark pattern is an interface designed to trick users into performing actions in applications that they are not meant to perform. The purpose of the study is to map typical UX-related persuasive designs and dark patterns on a selection of websites using Gray’s definition of dark patterns and Ethical principles from Association for Computing Machinery, then analyze five users and their ethical stance. The results of the interviews and observations show that users are not aware that a persuasive design and dark patterns elements exist on a website. The dark patterns influence the users to perform a behavior in a certain direction. The results of the theory based analysis have resulted in Gray’s dark patterns and Ethical principles from Association for Computing Machinery features that on websites allow users to be influenced by a persuasive design and/or dark patterns. In summary, it can be concluded that the participants in the study agree that a design involving dark patterns is considered unethical.