Use virtue signalling (but only if you’re actually planning to be virtuous!)

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In Use friction to your advantage, I talked about ways to nudge users toward desired—or away from undesired—behaviours. Take this idea too far, however, and you end up with Dark Patterns: UI tricks that deliberately deceive users.

E-commerce is full of bad examples:

– The “Only 3 Left In Stock!” badges that try to rush you into a purchase

– The awkward games and bonus points on the Temu app

– Cookie consent banners where the “Accept all” button looks like the only real option

Use friction to your advantage

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Amazon in general, and Jeff Bezos in particular, are famous for “reducing friction.” Case in point: One-click checkout. Allegedly, it was Bezos himself who obsessed over removing as many steps as possible from the customer’s path to purchase. Enter your shipping address? Confirm your credit card number? Validate the details? Gone. Just “Buy now,” and the goods will be in your mailbox tomorrow.

For poketto.me, I applied this principle to the signup process. What’s the simplest way to enroll for a new product or service? Do you really want to enter your name (first and last), email address (twice), a password (with arbitrary security criteria), then get a confirmation mail, click the link, and finally find yourself in another browser tab (or window)? By that time, many users would surely have given up.

Design on Build in Public

Use virtue signalling (but only if you’re actually planning to be virtuous!)

Use friction to your advantage