Revisiting "Bad" Design

I feel like I should clear up something about my previous post.

The “bad” design I’m referring to is design that’s aesthetically out-of-step with the trends of the day, the visual shorthand we use to say “Trust us, we have taste.” Perhaps it’s hierarchically confusing and hard to navigate. It’s hokey or naive or vernacular. Perhaps it’s all set in the Jokerman typeface. It’s largely harmless, but “bad.”

This is different from Bad Design, something that was designed with or for ill intentions. In graphic design, the famous examples were given by Milton Glaser in his “12 Steps on the Road to Hell,” a list he made with the intention of urging designers to take responsibility. They progress in levels of harmfulness, from the slightly deceptive to the more heinous. I’ll list his examples here, but it’s worth reading the whole essay:

1. Design a package to look larger on the shelf?
2. Do an ad for a slow-moving, boring film to make it seem like a lighthearted comedy?
3. Design a crest for a new vineyard to suggest that it's been in business for a long time?
4. Design a jacket for a book whose sexual content you find personally repellent?
5. Design an advertising campaign for a company with a history of known discrimination in minority hiring?
6. Design a package for a cereal aimed at children, which has low nutritional value and high sugar content?
7. Design a line of T-shirts for a manufacturer who employs child labor?
8. Design a promotion for a diet product that you know doesn't work?
9. Design an ad for a political candidate whose policies you believe would be harmful to the general public?
10. Design a brochure piece for an SUV that turned over more frequently than average in emergency conditions and caused the death of 150 people?
11. Design an ad for a product whose continued use might cause the user's death?

I think about this list quite a bit.

In the UI/UX world, the ready examples are referred to as “Dark Patterns” or “Deceptive Patterns” and these are what inspired me to write this blog post.

Because I admit, I ordered a package off the big A-to-Z website. It was delivered to the wrong address, as confirmed by the photo of the delivered package in dark, unfamiliar hallway. No matter, this happens, I’ll just let them know. But there was no way to do that. Just twisting warrens of buttons and links leading to dead-end pages.

That is a dark pattern. It is intentional. It was designed that way. The thing they want you to do, purchase, is obvious and easy. It can be done with a single button. But other things like cancelling a subscription or reporting a problem require navigating through digital mazes.

You can check out any time you like. But you can never leave.

THAT is Bad Design. It’s not cute or endearing kitschiness. It’s an invisible cage.