Attention Architecture
Learn how stopping cues, defaults, uncertainty, social pressure, urgency, and interaction timing shape the length and character of a session. Dark patterns are interface designs that manipulate users into taking actions they didn't intend. The term was coined by UX designer Harry Brignull in 2010. While some dark patterns are blatantly deceptive (hidden fees, impossible-to-cancel subscriptions), many engagement traps exist in a gray area where the line between "good product design" and "manipulation" is blurry. This lesson documents these tactics for understanding. Whether you deploy them is an ethical decision, but you need to know they exist and how they work.
- Identify the stopping cues a product removes
- Trace how defaults change behavior without changing choice sets
- Evaluate attention gains against user agency and regret
Record a five-minute session in a feed-based product. Mark every stopping cue, continuation default, uncertainty event, social signal, and moment of friction.
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