Deceptive Patterns.
Logical Fallacies.
Cognitive Biases.

See how I put all three right up there? Feels unusual for a webpage to get straight to the point, doesn’t it?

That’s because I didn’t use the Sneaking Deceptive Pattern (aka Bait and Switch) in attempt to withhold or obscure the information that I teased, in order to manipulate you into clicking or scrolling further.

And by not using that trick, I didn’t cause you to engage in the cognitive fallacies of a False Dilemma (the idea you’ll miss out on something important if you don’t click through), an Appeal to Emotion (letting your feelings of excitement or intrigue override a considered choice), or the Bandwagon Effect (creating FOMO, in the belief that if all other UCD folk know this, then you can’t afford to be left behind).

And in turn, I didn’t manipulate your cognitive biases of Loss Aversion, Optimism Bias, or Attentional Bias, to name just three of the shortcuts in our brains that cause us to act on feelings, without really thinking.

While there can be a confusing overlap in logical fallacies and cognitive biases at times, and with deceptive patterns still being defined (and with their original inappropriate ‘dark pattern’ name still cropping up), it can be a tricky trio to fully get to grips with.

But if you’re a human, and designing for other humans, with hope to help or enable them in their activities, then these psychological and sociological topics are essential to grapple with.

For the second time in less than a week, “I’m banging the three drums of my Venn diagram again here: Successful design involves psychology, communication, and motive management.”

I got to thinking about this today after seeing Harry Brignull (founder of deceptive.design) posting about the Preselection Pattern on LinkedIn.