A Business Case For Not Being A Jerk

Heard of “dark patterns”?

You’ve probably experienced them, even if you’re unfamiliar with the term.

“No thanks, I don’t want to grow my company” – we’ve all seen pop up dismissal links that say things like this. They work, we feel them at work in ourselves as we click on them anyway. We’re aware that we’re being manipulated, and we don’t thank the website (or the company behind it) for it.

“Read this article in our new app!” – we’ve all been to blogs that will insist we read their post (that we’ve yet to experience) in a form other than that which we have specifically elected to use. Those which just so happen to obstruct our reading every time we go there. These endearingly titled “Dickbars” were crowned as such for a reason.

Things like this are touted as good design, often alongside shortsighted claims of increased user acquisition.

If all you see is top-of-funnel metrics, without the context of the tempered relationship (not to mention blood pressure) you introduce to those people that lead to higher downstream churn, you may be lulled into trying these cheap tricks yourself, too.

Don’t fall for it. There’s a solid business case for not being a jerk.