1,841 instances of dark patterns on ecommerce sites, in the categories of sneaking, urgency, misdirection, social proof, scarcity, obstruction, and forced action. You can browse this overview, read the paper, or look at the raw data.
We conducted a large-scale study, analyzing ~53K product pages from ~11K shopping websites to characterize and quantify the prevalence of dark patterns.
A nice overview of the Payment Request API, which is getting more and more browser support.
It was a busy week with lots of commuting up and down to London, so I’ve been looking forward to a weekend of unwinding.
Jessica and I like to spend our Saturday afternoons doing our shopping for the weekend, planning out some nice leisurely meals. Today we went down to the Open Market, a recently-renovated collection of stalls under one roof selling local produce and goods. The market is also home to an excellent Greek café, where we had lunch.
I guess it’s part of the gentrification of the London Road area. If this is gentrification, bring it on.
Today began bright and early with a delicious breakfast at Zazie. Every other time I’ve been to that place, I’ve had to wait in line for ages because on the weekends, it’s a ridiculously popular spot in Cole Valley. Today, being a Monday, there was no wait at all.
But most of today revolved around a later meal. Cindy and Matt reserved a table at Quince, a swanky restaurant that I knew would be good from seeing Larry’s pictures. The problem was I needed a suitably swanky outfit.
Now, I began this American trip with a decent enough ensemble; my Hiut jeans and a matching typically-flowery shirt. But over the course of my travels, those jeans developed a split, then a hole, then a rip. So I picked up a pair of black trousers when I was in San Diego. That’s all well and good, but my flowery shirt is dark blue …dark blue and black really don’t match. So I needed to find a nice shirt, one that would work with a pair of black trousers, and I needed to find them as soon as possible.
That’s why Jessica and I spent most of the afternoon going up and down Haight Street, popping into every vintage or thrift store we came across. In one of those stores, I found a Ben Sherman shirt. Amazingly, it fit me. Even more amazingly, it was just twelve dollars. Bargain!
I feel like there should be alternative fashion shows, where the models sashay down the catwalk and—upon reaching the end—stop and say, “See this shirt? Twelve bucks! Bargain!”
With my shirt mission fulfilled, I shined my shoes, scrubbed up and headed out with Jessica to rendezvous with Cindy and Matt for an unforgettable evening of excellent food and wine.
A nifty example of responsive tables. View source to see how it’s done.
To quote Jessica: “Seems stupid but it’s kind of a good idea.”
Taking shopping lists and setting them in a more typographically pleasing way.
A Flash interface that allows you to interact with lingerie models when shopping for knickers. I point this out purely for reasons of interaction research, of course.
I need to get some noise-cancelling headphones for the flight to Vancouver. Those Sennheisers are looking good for the price.
Hilarious account of a cross-cultural mix-up in a Brighton supermarket.