UX Dark Design Patterns — Confirmshaming

Today, I’m covering the UX Dark Design Pattern ‘Confirmshaming”. Confirmshaming is the act of guilting the user into opting into something. The option to decline is worded in such a way as to shame the user into compliance.

In my opinion, confirmshaming is the most utilized dark design pattern. If you shopped for anything online you’ve come across it before. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

With this popup, the user sees the message. “No thanks, I’m not into savings.” Everyone likes to save money, but most users don’t want to be shamed into signing up for your emails.

In this example, Esquire is displaying a message I don’t read.
Trying to make the user feel bad if they don’t want to signup for marketing emails is not an effective strategy.

Brands that are most successful in getting users to signup for their emails don’t use Confirmshaming. Instead, they offer the user something of value for opting into their emails. Let’s take a look at a few examples of brands that do this well.

While I’m personally not a fan of getting a popup within seconds of landing on the website, this brand is not shaming the user into signing up for their emails. Instead, they are offering the user a chance to save 10% off their first purchase.

Saturdays is offering the user a 15% discount off their first order if they are willing to share their email address. Additionally, they provide a link to privacy policy so that the user may learn how they protect users' privacy.

As our designers, it’s our job to ensure our work is ethical. It’s our responsibility to pushback when we’re asked to use dark design patterns like confirmshaming in our designs and to educate others that we can achieve our business goals by providing value, being transparent, and being respectful to our users.