An Overview of User Psychological Manipulation Techniques in UI/UX Web Design
Rimsha Riaz, Aurora Vasconcelos, Pedro Pinto · 2024
The increasing reliance on web interfaces for online activities such as shopping, working, and socializing has highlighted the importance of ethical UI/UX design. However, the rise of manipulative web design techniques presents a problem. These techniques subtly influence user behavior in ways that can lead to privacy invasions, unwanted purchases, and other negative outcomes. They may also exploit users’ psychological biases, making it difficult to recognize the manipulation.This paper collects, details, and organizes the manipulation techniques in UI/UX web design. Each technique is detailed and organized into 10 different categories. Also, this work details which techniques require user action or user awareness, leading users to take unintended actions or coerce them into unwanted decisions through manipulation. Use cases and possible countermeasures are also discussed. This contribution serves as the basis for a future assessment of the impact of these techniques and the development of ethical web design practices.