New Workshop Paper: Serious & Persuasive Games as Counter-Measures Against Deceptive Patterns

We are excited to announce the presentation of our latest workshop paper, "Start Playing Around - Serious & Persuasive Games as a Viable Counter-Measure Against Deceptive Patterns?" at the Mobilizing Research and Regulatory Action on Dark Patterns and Deceptive Design Practices Workshop at CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2024 (DDPCHI 2024).

As deceptive design practices continue to manipulate user behavior, our research investigates the potential of serious and persuasive games as effective tools to counteract these tactics. Our work delves into the mechanics of deceptive patterns—manipulative designs that trick users into actions they might not have taken otherwise—and explores the limitations of traditional awareness measures. Even when users are aware of manipulative tactics, research suggests that awareness alone may not suffice to mitigate the effects of deceptive patterns. In this position paper, we argue that serious and persuasive games, which are designed to elicit behavioral changes, could be an essential addition to traditional educational interventions. By drawing on insights from our ongoing research into a serious game developed to raise awareness of deceptive patterns, we highlight how these games can foster behavioral resistance against manipulation.

We invite you to explore our full findings and join the conversation on leveraging serious and persuasive games to enhance user resilience against deceptive design practices: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3720/paper7.pdf