I loathe apps and companies that use UI to trick me. Examples:
When transferring my Venmo balance to my bank, the app always presents the expedited option that carries a 1% fee. This is a terrible deal, and unless you absolutely have to have the money quickly, nobody should use it. But Venmo presents it first, in a way that makes it look like it is the standard. More than once I have almost chosen it by accident.
What would an ethical approach be? Bare minimum, make the no-fee and fee approaches at least equal in the UI, so the user isn't tricked into choosing the one that is almost surely a bad deal. Better yet, create a setting where the user can set the no-fee option as their default, so they don't have the UI friction of making a choice between a good deal and a terrible deal.
LinkedIn is a huge offender. They do this horrible bait-and-switch thing with invitations. After executing on their periodic prompt for connect with people you might know (annoying, but to be expected with any form of social media), almost instantaneously, the UI automatically populates the screen with all the contacts that you just deliberately un-checked! It happened so fast, it was hard to notice. In fact, if you weren't paying close attention, you might think the first SEND INVITATIONS did not work, so you would re-click. They have been doing this for over a decade.
One of the pleasures of doing business with Amazon is that I find it never nudges me in a direction contrary to my best interests. Even when they offer shipping options that would be cheaper to them than honoring my Prime membership, they default correctly, to Prime, and merely give me the option to select the alternative shipping methods.
When transferring my Venmo balance to my bank, the app always presents the expedited option that carries a 1% fee. This is a terrible deal, and unless you absolutely have to have the money quickly, nobody should use it. But Venmo presents it first, in a way that makes it look like it is the standard. More than once I have almost chosen it by accident.
What would an ethical approach be? Bare minimum, make the no-fee and fee approaches at least equal in the UI, so the user isn't tricked into choosing the one that is almost surely a bad deal. Better yet, create a setting where the user can set the no-fee option as their default, so they don't have the UI friction of making a choice between a good deal and a terrible deal.
LinkedIn is a huge offender. They do this horrible bait-and-switch thing with invitations. After executing on their periodic prompt for connect with people you might know (annoying, but to be expected with any form of social media), almost instantaneously, the UI automatically populates the screen with all the contacts that you just deliberately un-checked! It happened so fast, it was hard to notice. In fact, if you weren't paying close attention, you might think the first SEND INVITATIONS did not work, so you would re-click. They have been doing this for over a decade.
One of the pleasures of doing business with Amazon is that I find it never nudges me in a direction contrary to my best interests. Even when they offer shipping options that would be cheaper to them than honoring my Prime membership, they default correctly, to Prime, and merely give me the option to select the alternative shipping methods.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment