The Dark Side of Interaction Design

Abstract

This panel will provoke the audience into reflecting on the dark side of interaction design. It will ask what role the HCI community has played in the inception and rise of digital addiction, digital persuasion, data exploitation and dark patterns and what to do about this state of affairs. The panelists will present their views about what we have unleashed. They will examine how ‘stickiness’ came about and how we might give users control over their data that is sucked up in this process. Finally, they will be asked to consider the merits and prospects of an alternative agenda, that pushes for interaction design to be fairer, more ethically-grounded and more transparent, while at the same time addressing head-on the dark side of interaction design.