Via Kottke.
Tag: europe
The Engine Inside
Via Dense Discovery.
Dark Patterns

The Pudding once again has a good publication to detail Dark Patterns used among some big brands. Too few people know what they are and that they serve a purpose.
When you sign up for digital service, sometimes they make it difficult to unsubscribe. You see these tricks every time you order a product online, use a search engine, sign up for a streaming service, or join a social media community. They’re so common in subscription and shopping websites that they have a name: Dark Patterns.
By Caroline Sinders, The Pudding
As consumers, it’s time we demand better.
Maybe it’s time we properly document the main abusers (or do we need to call the EU to enact protection laws again because they can’t be trusted)?
The War Department thought it was important for Americans to understand the tactics fascists would use to take power in the United States. They would try to gain power “under the guise of ‘super-patriotism’ and ‘super-Americanism.'” And they would use three techniques:
First, they would pit religious, racial, and economic groups against one another to break down national unity. Part of that effort to divide and conquer would be a “well-planned ‘hate campaign’ against minority races, religions, and other groups.”
Second, they would deny any need for international cooperation, because that would fly in the face of their insistence that their supporters were better than everyone else. “In place of international cooperation, the fascists seek to substitute a perverted sort of ultra-nationalism which tells their people that they are the only people in the world who count. With this goes hatred and suspicion toward the people of all other nations.”
Third, fascists would insist that “the world has but two choices — either fascism or communism, and they label as ‘communists’ everyone who refuses to support them.”
Source: Kottke
Well, well, look at that.
Exactly what’s happening now (LGBTQ+, women/abortion, immigrants, refugees, Muslims, etc).
And exactly the same is happening in Europe.
Designing an (unofficial) transit map
As Jansen notes, this is not how a design process would work in the real world — there’s no user testing or competing stakeholders to please — but from a purely aesthetic and functional standpoint, it’s still an interesting challenge and puzzle to attempt to solve.
Source: Kottke