Design Beyond Deception: A Practitioner's Manual to Tackle Deceptive Design

We are engaged in developing a manual of responsible design principles for practitioners keeping users and their needs at the centre.

Using our human-centered design approach, this project combines multidisciplinary research with insights gathered from a community of practitioners to create a manual of ethical UI/UX design principles which practitioners can use to tackle deceptive design practices.

Manual Themes

What is Deceptive Design?

We explore the nature of 'dark patterns', the role of cognitive bias in design, and reported user harms. It seeks to center the designer's role in challenging deception, and moving towards responsible practice.

Building Trust through User Privacy and Data Protection

Tackling deception means creating online experiences where users' privacy is secure, and data is safe. This section invites designers to play with our fun activities to make consent and privacy fun, and meaningful for users, paving the way for better UX experiences.

Re-thinking the 'User'

Current ways of thinking of the 'user' especially while designing digital experiences are limited. By focussing on context, language, community, know-how, and other human-centered ways of designing can make us craft trusted and delightful digital experiences.

When Policy meets Design

Where do policy and design meet? As deceptive design harms increase across countries, legislators are seeking to introduce laws which will soon regulate design practices. Keeping ahead of these trends helps you build trust with your consumers, and stay ahead of the curve.

Centering values in Design Practice

Is design..lost? Values are an integral part of the design process and practice, but what are these values? Why should we choose some values over others? Let's explore together using frameworks and design-thinking tools.

Beyond the Screen: Deception in Emerging Tech

Deceptive Design is not just a UI/UX problem. How can we think about deception in media other than screens? How can we design emerging technology in ways such that deception is not a challenge? What's the future of responsible design?

We are currently inviting feedback and comments on the manual from design practitioners and academics in the firlds of HCI, human-centered design, data protection and privacy, law, and other related fields. Launch of the manual to be announced soon.