Refund Rumble
A cheeky, online shopping game intentionally utilizing dark patterns to recreate the frustrations of customers toward the existing interactions in online shopping today.
Who
is the team?
Team
Christie Lee, Lucia Pineda, Apeksha Jain
Supervisor
Nathan Shedroff
This graduate course project challenged us to find real-world problems and create unique solutions. With a shared passion for tech education and accessibility, my team and I were inspired to explore the space of Dark Patterns.
Though a heavily collaborative experience, my responsibilities were in the preliminary research, brainstorming/ideating, interviewing, mock-ups, wireframes, and the final layout and flow of the game.
Final Product
Wanna Play a Game?
If you're interested in giving the full game a try, we welcome all brave participants.
Explore
Why e-commerce?
As a team, we made some necessary assumptions. One key assumption, was that the e-commerce industry offered a broad reach and diverse customer base, making it an ideal candidate for our project.
Exploration
- starting doing preliminary research into some stats of struggles in e-commerce space (as this was the most easily accessible data)
- found that we were limiting ourselves by keeping our target audience purely digital novices as we found that even digital natives struggle with the current structure of e-commerce sites
- decision to move forward with understanding dark patterns rather than struggles of digital novices
- stakeholder map to gain an understanding of who is "responsible"
With that established, we were able to move forward with our preliminary research to identify current needs and pain points.
"The idea of an 'online assistant' is generally not new. However, there is a lack of good practical implementation in E-Commerce."
"No surveyed [baby] boomers reported that returning items was 'very easy,' compared to 6% of the general population."
"48% of respondents would likely abandon a company if its website/app is hard to navigate. Top reasons for abandonment include hard-to-reach customer support (61%), long wait or return response times (55%), and data leak or security breach (55%)."
Insights & Questions
Not only is there a disconnect between customers and customer service, but also the fact that only 6% of the general population would describe the return process as "easy" should be concerning.
1
E-commerce, widely used by numerous customers, surprisingly faces many friction points in its primary interactions. Identifying the key stakeholders responsible for addressing these issues is crucial.
2
After identifying stakeholders and researching affected users, we must consider if friction points in e-commerce, which remain unimproved for undisclosed business reasons, are akin to Dark Patterns.
3
Research
Identifying pain points
Dark Patterns
Interaction patterns that manipulate or force the user into an action that suits the business' interests, rather than prioritizing the users' interests.
Some simple examples of dark patterns can be seen over there
*Dark patterns can be implemented intentionally by decision makers to benefit the business, but there are instances where dark patterns are created unintentionally by genuine UX challenges that have yet to be solved.
Stakeholder Map
However, while Digital novices struggle more with Dark Patterns, the adverse emotional user journey affects both Novices and Digital Natives alike.
We used 'Digital Novice' to label those less adept with digital tools and propose that such users are most impacted by e-commerce Dark Patterns.
Insights from Decision Makers
We interviewed Designers, Engineers and Business Owners to gain a deeper understanding from the Decision Makers' POV.
Insights from Customers
We interviewed regular online shoppers — a mix of both Digital Novices and Natives — to pinpoint the disconnect between Customers and Decision Makers.
Emotional Journey of Customer
This illustrates a typical online shopping experience and highlights the intense frustration customers feel when unable to complete a task, shown in the second slide.
Define
What are we making?
Throughout our brainstorming and research, we were painfully aware of our own lack of experience in the e-commerce space and acknowledge that this issue doesn't have a straightforward solution. We couldn't land on any product that could give us a clean "answer".
Ultimately, we developed a gamified demonstration of an online shopping journey aimed at Decision Makers. Our intention is to foster empathy by having them walk in customers' shoes, prompting them to acknowledge and rectify the customer experience they craft.
The only thing that we were confident in was that Decision Makers were responsible for ethical products and services in exchange for customers' loyalty and money – and yet, customers are constantly taken advantage of, sometimes unintentionally.
Design
Waveline of Gameplay
We designed our game to mirror the customer's emotional highs and lows. Intentionally, players may fail to complete tasks, losing the sense of accomplishment, reflecting real customer frustrations.
Gameplay Elements
We incorporated gameplay elements inspired by different types of intentionally difficult and frustrating games — most famously the Impossible Quiz from Newgrounds days (where my millennials at?), against content and frameworks from existing online shopping websites.
🎰 3 Rounds
Seems straightforward like most online games, but instructions become more frustrating and absurd as the game advances.
😈 Aggressive Color Palette
Chose a color palette shown to cause anxiety, such as reds, yellows and oranges.
⏳ Timer
Set up a timer to give the player a sense of urgency. In reality, the time doesn't matter at all as certain levels are designed to be impassable.
📢 Pop Ups
Amplified the common annoyance of pop-ups in online shopping by adding a timed 'close' button, intentionally increasing frustration.
😵💫 Hard-to-Follow Return Policies
Replicated real return policies that were text heavy, confusing, and disorganized (almost verbatim).
🤖 Unhelpful Chatbot
Created an automated chatbot that repeats the same infuriating responses, with their human counterparts being just as unhelpful.
😶🌫️ Technical Language
Used unfamiliar language such as "SKU" or "Reverse Logistical Case Ticket" to confuse and hinder the players' progress.
Testing & Learnings
We showcased the game to a live audience and had a strategic designer play the game firsthand, where we learned several things:
The game effectively elicited the intended emotional journey in the participant, mirroring the anxiety and frustration found in many current online shopping experiences.
1
Regardless of digital proficiency, these types of common Dark Patterns in e-commerce create the same frustration, anxiety, and overall negative experience across all types of customers.
2
We found that all customers, no matter their digital proficiency, seek autonomy online. When this is compromised, their drive to complete tasks drops significantly.
3
Wrap Up
To reiterate, we are aware of our own lack of experience in the e-commerce space and acknowledge that this issue doesn’t have a straightforward solution.
Which is why our game’s goal is not to present solutions, but to merely ask the decision makers to acknowledge that the existing e-commerce experience causes anxiety and dissatisfaction.
By anticipating and accommodating edge cases, we create a more robust and user-friendly experience.
It demonstrates a commitment to providing a thoughtful and respectful design that caters to the diverse range of users who might interact with a product. If done right, the experience could be improved for all users.
Hindsight is 20/20
Looking back, would we have done anything differently? If we had more time and resources, what would we work towards?
In our brainstorming and research, we fixated on defining specifics, particularly our audience (Digital Natives vs Digital Novices), which ultimately wasn't as crucial as we thought. Moving past this sooner might have given us more time and energy to polish the game's use cases.
From our interviews with Decision Makers, we learned valuable insights, but subtler questioning might have uncovered more depth. There was an internal struggle with the interview process as we aimed to inquire without accusing to avoid defensiveness, while recognizing existing issues.
If I were to advance this project, I'd aim to trial the game with more people to refine the interactions, content, and messaging. I believe there's great potential in a product that addresses the intricate issues of Dark Patterns.