Mindmapping:

To brainstorm dissertation ideas, I listed current world topics alongside key design concepts and used Affinity Mapping to link them together. I dropped 'Colour Theory' when it didn't align well with any major issues, swapping it for Ethical Design and Sustainability instead.

Initially, three topic pairs caught my interest: Aging Population & Tech, Neurodiversity & Accessibility, and Entertainment & Dark Patterns. After reading a few articles on the first two, I couldn't find a clear angle to write about. I decided to narrow down the third idea to Dark Patterns in E-Commerce, since 'Entertainment' felt too broad and I preferred focusing on shopping over gaming.

My lecturer suggested creating a Miro board to map out my research. I used it to look deeper into dark patterns and collect real-world examples. I had experienced these patterns before, but I didn't realise until now that they are intentional design choices made to manipulate users.

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVHhiplMw=/?share_link_id=419308305982

Through reading various articles, I uncovered the different categories and UI techniques that make up dark patterns. I learned how these tactics are specifically designed to trick users, enticing people to spend more money or perform actions they otherwise wouldn't.

After categorising the recurring themes, I narrowed it down to five potential areas I could write about: Roach Motel, Checkout Sneaking, Confirm-shaming, Visual Misdirection and Fake Urgency.

To help me brainstorm a title and research question, I wrote one for each topic. Once I noticed the overlap between them, I brought them together into a combined title and research plan.

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Title: Deceptive UX: How E-Commerce Dark Patterns Manipulate Online Shoppers

Question: How do dark patterns trick online shoppers into making unintended decisions and how do these tactics impact customer trust?

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Finally, I used this to help structure my dissertation. As I wasn't entirely sure what to include yet, I used Gemini to give me a simple layout that I could follow and refine.

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Potential Structure

1. Introduction (~450 words)

• Introduce e-commerce and dark patterns.
• State your research question on deception and trust.
• Outline the 5 UI patterns: Obstruction, Sneaking, Confirm-shaming, Visual Misdirection and Artificial Urgency.

2. Literature Review (~850 words)

• Define dark patterns using Gray et al. (2018).
• Show how common they are using Mathur et al. (2019).
• Explain the debate between short-term sales vs. long-term trust.

3. Methodology (~450 words)

• Explain your secondary research approach (analysing existing studies).
• Detail how you selected academic papers and e-commerce evidence.
• Outline your framework for analysing design, psychology and trust.

4. Results (~1,450 words)

• Real Examples: Detail how the 5 dark patterns work on real shopping sites.
• Psychology: Show how these designs trick mental shortcuts (default bias, urgency, guilt).
• Customer Impact: Present findings on user frustration, basket abandonment and lost trust (Voigt et al., 2021).

5. Discussion (~450 words)

• Connect deceptive designs directly to the loss of customer trust.
• Weigh quick profits against long-term customer loyalty.
• Touch on future laws and the move toward ethical UX design.

6. Conclusion (~350 words)

• Summarise the key findings.
• Give a direct answer to your research question.
• Offer final advice for ethical web design. </aside>

Reflection