Tragic Design

Chapter 3. Design Can Anger

OF ALL THE WAYS we can hurt our users, emotional harm is the most common—and yet we often fail to detect it. This type of pain can’t be seen on the outside, and it’s dealt with in ways that differ greatly from one person to another. We won’t read in the papers that “due to a change in the interface, 34 users have reported feeling angry.” However, we will hear (a lot) about exploding cell phones that have injured customers (http://bit.ly/2mp2334). There is a multitude of ways design can cause pain. The effect can range from just making the user feel uncomfortable to full-on grief, heartache, misery, and even depression. Our products and designs might cause someone to feel all of those negative feelings, but the one we are the most familiar with is frustration. Why? Because we know that frustrated users mean lost customers, vocal detractors, and lower revenues. Companies tend to focus on converting unhappy customers into happy ones. But that line we draw is disingenuous and oversimplifies the situation. We usually consider our unhappy customers as “defective products” that need to be fixed, but when do we stop and take the time to actually consider what they are feeling?

In this chapter, we will explore why and how certain design decisions can anger our users. We know that there are many more reasons that this could happen, but we will focus on two culprits: impolite technologies and dark patterns.

Why Should You Care About Emotions?

But first, why should ...