6 Sneaky Website Tricks That Manipulate Visitors
Here are 6 sneaky website tricks that manipulate visitors (and how to spot them). Hopefully this information will make you less susceptible to these sneaky patterns, and also help you avoid accidentally implementing them on your own website if you are DIYing!
Ever landed on a website and suddenly felt anxiety, pressure, or guilt? Yeah, it’s not fun, and yet, so normal.
There are certain website tricks that companies use to get more sales, more email subscribers, or achieve whatever their goal is. In reality, it makes for a bad User Experience (UX), which leaves a bitter taste in people’s mouths. Sometimes companies don’t even realize they are doing this to their visitors, which sucks for everyone involved!
The 6 Deceptive Patterns in UX Design:
Forced Continuity
This is one of the most frequent and frustrating deceptive patterns in UX Design. Picture this: you signed up for a 7 day free trial and you were charged on the 7th day without notification of any kind… Yeah, that’s never fun. You are forced to pay for a subscription because it was not easy to cancel, you were never reminded to cancel before the free trial ended, or you didn’t realize when the subscription would renew.
Yes, if you’re the business in question, you would get money from your subscriber’s lack of attention, but they are not going to be happy. People who are not happy with the customer experience are not going to continue giving you money and are certainly not going to recommend you to their friends.
To drive this point home even further, get this:
I was freelancing for a SaaS company in 2023 and realized they were accidentally forcing their app subscribers to continue subscribing because the button to cancel the subscription was hidden in their web portal. They were getting tons of complaints about it! After I brought this up and we were able to fix the design issue, the companies onboarding rate went from 3% to 18%. That’s a 15% increase in subscriber retainment all because people knew they could easily cancel at anytime. People just want some transparency and respect – relatable!
Sneak Into Basket
When you’re on an e-commerce website, always double check what’s in your cart before you pay. “Sneak Into Basket” is the next tricky-trick in “6 sneaky website tricks that manipulate visitors.” It’s when extra product items are automatically added to your check out cart. This can look like some kind of special insurance, up-sell, or add-on that you might not necessarily need or want.
The fact that users have to take the time to remove items they never added makes for a bad user experience.
Hidden Costs
We all know these trigger words: “no hidden costs, no hidden fees!”
Hidden Costs can look like any extra charges or fees (instead of extra products, like Sneak Into Basket) that you weren’t prepared to pay for.
You’re probably thinking, “well, I get extra fees added to everything online, like ordering takeout and getting concert tickets, etc.” YUP, me too. And. It. Sucks. It gets deceptive, sneaky, and makes us resent the company as a whole, when we don’t realize we are being charged that extra cost. If there is little notification, it’s bad UX!
We pay the hidden costs, because we want what we came for, but that doesn’t mean we need to be happy about it. HUMPH.
Confirm Shaming
This one’s a real kicker because a lot of the time it doesn’t just make you frustrated or annoyed, it tugs on some deeper emotions like guilt and doubt. It’s truly diabolical!
Confirm Shaming is… Well, you know when you’re reading a cool article about travel, sustainability, or natural wonders and then a pop-up box covers your screen saying, “Join our newsletter to learn more about saving our planet!”? Then, the two button options are something like, “Yes, I want to subscribe and help the planet!” and “No, I don’t care about the environment enough to subscribe.” YEAH, THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING – DIABOLICAL. Totally out of line!
I’m giving you permission and validation right now to click that “NO” button, because chances are, if they are trying to guilt trip you into subscribing to their newsletter like that, they are not the kind of organization who is truly advocating for our world. Yeah, I said it.
If you are deliberately made to feel guilty about not buying or subscribing to something, that is Confirm Shaming, and you do not need to put up with that, my friend.
False Urgency
You: “AH, I just landed on this website and there’s a timer at the top saying I only have an hour until this amazing sale ends!”
Me: “Check the site again tomorrow, you’ll still have an hour until the sale ends.”
The deceptive pattern of False Urgency revolves around so-called “limited time offers” trying to convince you to buy NOW, when in reality, the urgency is complete fiction.
Now, I’m not saying every sale timer is a scam. You can use this marketing tactic super effectively in a completely ethical way by simply being honest. If you give your audience a two-week sale, the sale should be two weeks long! The timer counts down those two weeks and the urgency is real. You can even extend the sale, that’s fine! You’re still good there.
It becomes unethical when the timer restarts every time you open the website. It becomes unethical when companies pressure people to buy under fake timelines. We don’t trust those companies, and we don’t end up supporting them.
False Scarcity
This is similar to False Urgency; you’ll feel that same pressure to buy for no real reason. If you are being made very aware of items that are going out of stock, are limited, or are available for a limited time only, it’s probably a case of false scarcity and they are trying to manipulate you with false numbers. Don’t let ‘em getcha!
Again, it’s not unethical to tell your audience you are running out of stock if you are actually running out of stock! You can make people aware of that, and you probably should, because I’m sure people want what you’re puttin’ out!
It becomes unethical when companies are falsely claiming there are “only 4 left!” of every item in the online shop. It will be easy to spot, just keep your lie-detector goggles on.
Advice for the Next Adventurepreneur
Those are the 6 sneaky website tricks that manipulate visitors – keep an eye out for ’em. Don’t be fooled and don’t accidentally implement one of these on your own website! It honestly really hurts the relationship between business and audience, which is the last thing we want. We want your audience to adore you in every way!
It’s tough out there, but I got your back. 😉
Love you, good luck, and stay sane.
Alia
Next time on Sent Packing: Design Guide
Best Website Platforms for Digital Nomads: An Adventurepreneur’s Guide [2024] – A comparison guide for choosing the perfect website platform for your digital nomad business! Whether you’re a blogger, photographer, course creator, or multi-passionate entrepreneur running your empire from beach chairs around the world, there is a perfect website platform for you.
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