Ask HN: Is there a design term for deliberately making a UI more frustrating?
1•morellt•1mo ago
Context: This applies to functions such as email newsletters making you click as many times as possible before finally unsubscribing or Instagram deterring people from removing all of their likes by not including a "select all" button. When I google this concept, the only results I get are "Planned Obsolescence".
Comments
pwg•1mo ago
It's related to "Enshittification" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification) but that term does cover more than just making something they would prefer you not do a confusing labyrinth to deter you from actually doing it.
JohnFen•1mo ago
I would call your examples "dark patterns".
TimedToasts•1mo ago
A word I hear thrown around often is "friction"
begemotz•1mo ago
To elaborate on comments below; I agree that the correct term is "dark patterns". And, one common form of dark pattern is to increase "friction" - to slow down or make more difficult what the user is trying to do (or in other cases, reduce friction "buy now, pay later").
pwg•1mo ago