DesignByte: A Cautionary Tale of Deceptive UX Patterns

This week we share a frightening tale of UX dark patterns. Some evil UX designers will use nasty tricks to get you to do their bidding. Don’t fall for their traps. Pay attention to this cautionary tale.

Are you using your UX powers for good or evil?

Sit right back and you’ll hear a tale. A tale of a woman who isn’t quite careful about what she does with her personal information while browsing the internet.

Do you think you’re safe online? Do you pay close attention to the websites you visit?

Unscrupulous UX designers might use some dirty tactics to trick you into doing their evil bidding.

Don’t fall for these dirty tricks. Find out how to protect yourself by listening to this cautionary tale of deceptive UX patterns.


We want to give a huge shout-out to Kat Richards for writing an awesome article about deceptive UX patterns that inspired this story. Thanks Kat!

A quick note about this episode: Derek and I originally recorded this back in 2020, before the term “Deceptive Patterns” was widely used. Since then, “dark patterns” has been replaced with the more inclusive “deceptive patterns” terminology.

From the deceptive.design website: “The change reflects a commitment to avoiding language that might inadvertently carry negative associations or reinforce harmful stereotypes.”


Helpful Links:
• A Very Scary UX Halloween Story: Dark Patterns and Bad UX


Want to influence your team and advance your career?

Jeff White’s Storytelling Toolkit can help!

Jeff’s toolkit offers actionable insights on storytelling for UX designers. Jeff walks you through how to present work to clients and stakeholders, how to craft compelling case studies, and how to improve portfolio presentations for job interviews. Jeff’s approach goes beyond your basic once upon a time kind of stuff. 

And because I know this course will help you out so much, I’ve partnered with Jeff to get everyone listening to a 10% discount if you use the code BEYONDUX when you check out.  So head on over to beyonduxdesign.com/storytelling to get 10% off today!




Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear.

• Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show
• Support the show on Patreon
• Check out show transcripts
• Check out our website
• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify
• Subscribe on YouTube
• Subscribe on Stitcher

Support my caffeine addiction

Meet your host

Jeremy Miller

Designer // Host // Mentor

I’m Jeremy. I’m a product designer from New Orleans. Here are some things I want you to know about me:

But most importantly, I know you can’t build great software without great relationships.

So join me here and learn about how to build truly great software.

Meet your host:

No posts were found for provided query parameters.

Type at least 1 character to search