Universal Principles of UX

05

Design is not neutral.

In the early days of the internet, Nigerian princes emailed to borrow money, sweepstakes pop-ups guaranteed our winnings, and crushes would be revealed if we opened ILOVEYOU.txt. Those scams were not very subtle, and were not unlike psychic infomercials on TV, radio ads announcing free holidays, fake money orders being sent in the mail, or Mandarin robocalls targeting Chinese immigrants in the United States.

Today the internet is much more subtle in tricking us into doing things we don’t want to do. Unlike the old scams, it’s usually not as blatant as asking for money. It’s little deceptive tricks used by legitimate companies meant to generate more sales, get more subscribers, or gather more personal information. It’s ...