[texxtxxet]

I fought (and lost) against this payflow at a job because Marketing guessed that the sunk cost of time spent filling out the CC info form made users more likely to just click "buy" once the final cost was revealed. Stats backed them up :(

A dark pattern for sure, becoming more frequent.

[MetaWhirledPeas]

This is how stats lie. Success is based on measurements across short time spans because that's the only way to reliably correlate features to behaviors. There's no good way to measure the impact of a bad decision across years or decades, so the dark pattern gets away scot free. The only thing stopping it would be a particularly impactful survey or focus group, or worse yet user outcry.

[nine_k]

Most companies do not exist for decades, and many, even for years. They either get acquired, or, more often, dissolved.

Hence the idea to make a quick buck now, like there is no tomorrow, because tomorrow may actually not be %)

[MetaWhirledPeas]

Bingo.

[dnadler]

Not quite sure what you mean, wouldn't an A/B test be able to answer questions like these pretty easily?

[MetaWhirledPeas]

Across what time scale? Are you going to run your A/B test over the course of years to see if the changes drive users away?

[texxtxxet]

This was my argument at the time: build long-term trust with your users (including in your UI) is more important than short-term gains.

[dpkirchner]

Funny enough the time spent is basically nil with auto fill.

[kragen]

in the us maybe you can file complaints with the ftc

there must be an eu equivalent

[inetknght]

> in the us maybe you can file complaints with the ftc

As someone with complaints relevant to the FTC... where do I file a complaint with the FTC that falls outside of their website workflow? Their website appears to shoehorn everyone into payment disputes and fraud. But the FTC is supposed to protect consumers from more than just payment disputes and fraud.

[kragen]

send them a letter

perhaps better, hire a lawyer to do so

[anamexis]

On what grounds?

[orra]

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (Directive 2005/29/EC). Article 7(4)(c).

[solarkraft]

I hope they also measured the amount of people that abandoned because of it.