Deceptive patterns, i.e. dark patterns and manipulative user interfaces (UI), are a widely used design method that aims to manipulate users to act against their own interests. These patterns may particularly influence people with less education, visual impairments, and older adults. Yet, access is a critical feature of the user experience (UX), development standards, and law. We considered whether and how the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and related legislation, such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA), can act as a tool against deceptive patterns. We used these guidelines and legal statues in a heuristic evaluation to analyze whether and how deceptive patterns violate or conform to these standards. Although statistical analysis revealed no significant relationship, we identified three patterns implicated by the WCAG guidelines: Countdown Timer, Auto-Play, and Hidden Information. We offer this approach as one tool in the fight against UI-based deception and in support of inclusive design.
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems