Fighting the dark side:a scoping review of dark pattern mitigation

Abstract. As technology plays an ever-greater role in the everyday life of people, during the last decade there has been a rising concern about designers using their knowledge of human behaviour to design interfaces that trick users into doing things against their best interest. These design patterns are known as dark patterns, and the human-computer interaction and design communities have condemned their use. Informed by research, lawmakers have also started to form regulations against them. This thesis aimed to first introduce what the current state of dark pattern research is, and then answer the research question of how the usage of dark patterns could be mitigated. To answer the research question, a literature review in the form of scoping review was conducted. In scoping review, 28 articles that considered dark pattern mitigation were found to be relevant to the research question. Thematic analysis was used as a qualitative analysis method to identify common themes in articles. As a result, dark pattern mitigation tactics could be divided into seven different themes: company actions and economic value, regulating dark patterns, raising public awareness, tools for users, designing for the well-being of users, educating designers and developers, and enhancing dark pattern research. Mitigation tactics or propositions were then introduced in more detail under these themes. The results of the scoping review demonstrate that there is no one specific weapon to be used in the fight against dark patterns. On the contrary, different techniques from different fields need to be used together to effectively identify and mitigate dark patterns

Heuristinen evaluaatio käytettävyyden ja pelattavuuden kehityksestä videopeleissä

Tiivistelmä. Tutkielman tarkoitus on kartoittaa käytettävyyden ja pelattavuuden kehitystä kahden videopelin välillä heuristisen evaluaation avulla. Kyseiset pelit ovat Tomb Raider vuodelta 1996 ja siitä tehty uusintaversio Tomb Raider Anniversary vuodelta 2007. Pelien käytettävyyden ja pelattavuuden arvioimiseen sovelletaan Desurviren ja Wibergin PLAY-heuristiikkoja vuodelta 2009, jotka on kehitetty varta vasten työkaluksi toimintaseikkailupelien käytettävyys- ja pelattavuusarviointiin. Kokeellisen osan lisäksi tutkielman teoreettisessa kirjallisuuteen pohjautuvassa osiossa esitellään käytettävyyden ja pelikäytettävyyden sekä pelattavuuden määritelmät ja itse tutkimuksen kohteet eli Tomb Raider -pelit