UX Design
UI Design
Graphic Design
Definition: Dark Pattern in UX Design
Definition: Dark Pattern in UX Design
Definition: Dark Pattern in UX Design
May 28, 2025
What is a dark pattern?
Sorry to tell you, but you're already in the spiral.
If you use TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, you're stuck in a dark pattern — the dark side of UX Design: a user interface carefully crafted to trick users into doing things they didn't intend.
For years, apps and websites have been manipulating you — and you might not even realize it. These platforms use clever tricks, psychological levers, and smart design choices to serve one goal: make you stay.
Their primary goal is retention. The longer a user stays on the app, the more likely they are to generate revenue. How? By making you achieve actions, buy things — whether digital or physical — or by making you watch ads.
So how are they doing it?
How to set a dark pattern?
TikTok is considered one of the most efficient apps at retaining users, thanks to one of the most controversial UX designs ever made: the infinite scroll.
It was created in 2006 by Aza Raskin (formerly at Mozilla), originally to make navigation more fluid by eliminating the need for clicks. But he unintentionally created something more sinister. As he said in a BBC interview:
"If you don't give your brain time to catch up with your impulses, you just keep scrolling."
And it's true. Here's a comparison:
When your brain sees a design with several pages, it recognizes two options: move to the next page, or leave. But what if you only show one of those options? What if your brain doesn't even realize there's an alternative? Exactly — it won't look for it.
With infinite scroll, users are left with a single option: to keep scrolling. And it becomes even more manipulative when the app keeps showing exactly the kind of content you're craving.
"It's as if they're taking behavioral cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface — and that's what keeps you coming back again and again." — Raskin, BBC interview
Since then, countless companies have leveraged this to boost user retention and, in turn, their revenue.
Interestingly, Google decided to drop infinite scroll in June 2024, citing the need for faster results.
And do you know how users eventually get out of the spiral?
By falling into another dark pattern.
Can you guess which one?
What is a dark pattern?
Sorry to tell you, but you're already in the spiral.
If you use TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, you're stuck in a dark pattern — the dark side of UX Design: a user interface carefully crafted to trick users into doing things they didn't intend.
For years, apps and websites have been manipulating you — and you might not even realize it. These platforms use clever tricks, psychological levers, and smart design choices to serve one goal: make you stay.
Their primary goal is retention. The longer a user stays on the app, the more likely they are to generate revenue. How? By making you achieve actions, buy things — whether digital or physical — or by making you watch ads.
So how are they doing it?
How to set a dark pattern?
TikTok is considered one of the most efficient apps at retaining users, thanks to one of the most controversial UX designs ever made: the infinite scroll.
It was created in 2006 by Aza Raskin (formerly at Mozilla), originally to make navigation more fluid by eliminating the need for clicks. But he unintentionally created something more sinister. As he said in a BBC interview:
"If you don't give your brain time to catch up with your impulses, you just keep scrolling."
And it's true. Here's a comparison:
When your brain sees a design with several pages, it recognizes two options: move to the next page, or leave. But what if you only show one of those options? What if your brain doesn't even realize there's an alternative? Exactly — it won't look for it.
With infinite scroll, users are left with a single option: to keep scrolling. And it becomes even more manipulative when the app keeps showing exactly the kind of content you're craving.
"It's as if they're taking behavioral cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface — and that's what keeps you coming back again and again." — Raskin, BBC interview
Since then, countless companies have leveraged this to boost user retention and, in turn, their revenue.
Interestingly, Google decided to drop infinite scroll in June 2024, citing the need for faster results.
And do you know how users eventually get out of the spiral?
By falling into another dark pattern.
Can you guess which one?
What is a dark pattern?
Sorry to tell you, but you're already in the spiral.
If you use TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, you're stuck in a dark pattern — the dark side of UX Design: a user interface carefully crafted to trick users into doing things they didn't intend.
For years, apps and websites have been manipulating you — and you might not even realize it. These platforms use clever tricks, psychological levers, and smart design choices to serve one goal: make you stay.
Their primary goal is retention. The longer a user stays on the app, the more likely they are to generate revenue. How? By making you achieve actions, buy things — whether digital or physical — or by making you watch ads.
So how are they doing it?
How to set a dark pattern?
TikTok is considered one of the most efficient apps at retaining users, thanks to one of the most controversial UX designs ever made: the infinite scroll.
It was created in 2006 by Aza Raskin (formerly at Mozilla), originally to make navigation more fluid by eliminating the need for clicks. But he unintentionally created something more sinister. As he said in a BBC interview:
"If you don't give your brain time to catch up with your impulses, you just keep scrolling."
And it's true. Here's a comparison:
When your brain sees a design with several pages, it recognizes two options: move to the next page, or leave. But what if you only show one of those options? What if your brain doesn't even realize there's an alternative? Exactly — it won't look for it.
With infinite scroll, users are left with a single option: to keep scrolling. And it becomes even more manipulative when the app keeps showing exactly the kind of content you're craving.
"It's as if they're taking behavioral cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface — and that's what keeps you coming back again and again." — Raskin, BBC interview
Since then, countless companies have leveraged this to boost user retention and, in turn, their revenue.
Interestingly, Google decided to drop infinite scroll in June 2024, citing the need for faster results.
And do you know how users eventually get out of the spiral?
By falling into another dark pattern.
Can you guess which one?
