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ETHICAL DESIGN AND DECEPTIVE DESIGN PATTERNS: A STUDY ON TOURISM AND TRAVEL WEBSITES

Year 2025, Volume: 15 Issue: 3, 626 - 645, 01.07.2025

Murat Uluk

https://doi.org/10.7456/tojdac.1671123

Abstract

Today, online platforms include various design elements in their interface designs to guide users. However, when these design elements are misleading, they are defined as deceptive design patterns. Deceptive patterns are intentionally designed to manipulate users into taking actions they did not intend and to disrupt their plans. Such patterns interfere with users’ ability to make conscious choices and weaken their free will. Rather than helping users, deceptive patterns serve the platform’s interests instead. This issue, which is problematic in terms of design ethics, constitutes the main focus of the study. The study aims to reveal the presence of deceptive patterns on the most visited travel and tourism websites in Turkey. The absence of similar research in the Turkish literature highlights the study’s significant contribution to the field. A total of 139 deceptive patterns were identified across 10 websites and 47 web pages analysed in the study. The most common deceptive pattern was interface interference, which contains various misleading elements in interface design. The study aims to illuminate the issues of ethics in interface design, ethical web, and the development of systems that respect user behaviour and preferences.

Keywords

Deceptive patterns dark patterns ethical design user interface design web design

Ethical Statement

There is no element in the study that requires ethics committee approval

References

  • Balkan, A. ve Kalbag, L. (2015). Ethical Design. https://ind.ie/ethical-design/
  • Becker, C. U. (2021). Ethical principles for design in the 21st century. Social Science Research Network. 10.2139/ssrn.3631525
  • Brenncke, M. (2023). Regulating dark patterns. Social Science Research Network. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4588652
  • Brignull, H. (2011, 1 Kasım). Dark patterns: Deception vs. honesty in UI design. A List Apart. https://alistapart.com/article/dark-patterns-deception-vs-honesty-in-ui-design/
  • Brignull, H. (2023). Deceptive patterns: Exposing the tricks tech companies use to control you. Testimonium Ltd.
  • Browne, W. ve Jones, M. (2017). What works in e-commerce—A meta-analysis of 6700 online experiments. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/What-works-in-e-commerce-a-meta-analysis-of-6700-Browne-Jones/e1ee31039ec554152f597588ae7bef9192b3d2d2
  • Calawen, D. (2022). Dark patterns: Effect on overall user experience and site revisitation [Yayınlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi, TU Dublin]. https://arrow.tudublin.ie/scschcomdis/246
  • Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (3. bs). SAGE Publications.
  • Creswell, J. W. ve Clark, V. L. P. (2018). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (3. bs). SAGE Publications.
  • Çomu, T. ve Halaiqa, İ. (2015). Web içeriklerinin metin temelli çözümlemesi. M. Binark (Ed.), Yeni medya çalışmalarında araştırma yöntem ve teknikleri içinde (2. bs). Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Devon, R. E., ve Poel, I. (2004). Design ethics: The social ethics paradigm. International Journal of Engineering Education, 20, 461-469.
  • Di Geronimo, L., Braz, L., Fregnan, E., Palomba, F., & Bacchelli, A. (2020). UI dark patterns and where to find them: A study on mobile applications and user perception. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems içinde, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376600
  • Erdem, Ö. (2024). Arayüz tasarımlarında karanlık örüntüler (dark patterns) ve kullanıcı deneyimleri üzerine bir araştırma (Tez No. 896429) [Yayımlanmamış doktora tezi, Çukurova Üniversitesi, Ulusal Tez Merkezi].
  • Fabris, A. (2018). Ethics of information and communication technologies. Springer Cham. Falbe, T., Frederiksen, M. M., & Andersen, K. (2020). The ethical design handbook. Smashing Media.
  • Frankena, W. (2007). Etik (A. Aydın, Çev.). İmge Kitabevi Yayınları.
  • FTC Staff Report. (2022). Bringing dark patterns to light. https://www.ftc.gov/reports/bringing-dark-patterns-light
  • Galitz, W. O. (2002). The essential guide to user interface design: An introduction to GUI design principles and techniques (2. bs). Wiley.
  • Guerrini, M. ve Wang, J. (2020). How dark patterns are affecting online consumers booking behaviors. [Yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi, SKEMA Business School].
  • Gunawan, J., Pradeep, A., Choffnes, D., Hartzog, W., & Wilson, C. (2021). A comparative study of dark patterns across web and mobile modalities. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction içinde. 1-19. 10.1145/3479521
  • Hartzog, W. (2018). Privacy’s blueprint: The battle to control the design of new technologies. Harvard University Press.
  • Holmberg, E., ve Manse, S. (2023). Dark patterns in the travel industry: A study on users’ perception of dark patterns on airline companies’ websites [Yayımlanmamış Lisans Tezi, Uppsala University]. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1735141/FULLTEXT01.pdf
  • Karadoğan Doruk, E. (2015). İknanın sosyal psikolojisi: Temel kavramlar ve kuramlarıyla. Derin Yayınları. Kim, W. G., Pillai, S. G., Haldorai, K., & Ahmad, W. (2021). Dark patterns used by online travel agency websites. Annals of Tourism Research, 88(C). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103055
  • Kranzberg, M. (1986). Technology and history: “Kranzberg’s Laws”. Technology and Culture, 27(3), 544-560. 10.2307/3105385
  • Leiser, M., ve Santos, C. (2024). Dark patterns, enforcement, and the emerging digital design acquis: Manipulation beneath the interface. European Journal of Law and Technology, 15(1). https://ejlt.org/index.php/ejlt/article/view/990
  • Leonhard, G. (2020). Teknolojiye karşı insanlık. Siyah Kitap.
  • Luguri, J., ve Strahilevitz, L. J. (2021). Shining a light on dark patterns. Journal of Legal Analysis, 13(1), 43-109. https://doi.org/10.1093/jla/laaa006
  • Maier, M., ve Harr, R. (2020). Dark design patterns: An end-user perspective. Human Technology, 2(16), 170-199. 10.17011/ht/urn.202008245641
  • Mathur, A., Acar, G., Friedman, M. J., Lucherini, E., Mayer, J., Chetty, M., & Narayanan, A. (2019). Dark patterns at scale: Findings from a crawl of 11k shopping websites. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction içinde. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359183
  • Mathur, A., Kshirsagar, M., & Mayer, J. (2021). What makes a dark pattern... Dark? design attributes, normative considerations, and measurement methods. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems içinde, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445610
  • Mulvenna, M., Boger, J., & Bond, R. (2017). Ethical by design: A manifesto. Proceedings of the European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics içinde, 51-54. https://doi.org/10.1145/3121283.3121300
  • Narayanan, A., Mathur, A., Chetty, M., & Kshirsagar, M. (2020). Dark patterns: Past, present, and future: The evolution of tricky user interfaces. Queue, 18(2), s. 67-92. https://doi.org/10.1145/3400899.3400901
  • Neuman, W. L. (2014). Toplumsal araştırma yöntemleri, nitel ve nicel yaklaşımlar 2. Cilt (S. Özge, Çev.; 7. bs). Yayınodası Yayıncılık.
  • Noggle, R. (2022). The Ethics of manipulation. E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2022) içinde. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/ethics-manipulation/
  • Norman, D. (2002). The Design of everyday things. A Currency Book.
  • Sánchez Chamorro, L., Bongard-Blanchy, K., & Koenig, V. (2023). Ethical tensions in UX design practice: Exploring the fine line between persuasion and manipulation in online interfaces. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference içinde, s. 2408-2422. https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3596013
  • Similarweb. (2025). Top travel and tourism websites ranking in Turkey. https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/turkey/travel-and-tourism/travel-and-tourism/
  • Stone, D., Jarrett, C., Woodroffe, M., & Minocha, S. (2005). User interface design and evaluation. Elsevier.
  • Türe, T. (2024). Video oyunlarında kullanılan mikro ödeme yöntemlerinin haksız rekabet ve tüketici hukuku açısından değerlendirilmesi. Sakarya Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi, 12(2). 935-963. https://doi.org/10.56701/shd.1542034
  • Vistisen, P. ve Jensen, T. (2013). The ethics of user experience design. THICOMP 2013 Conference Proceedings içinde. https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/197682362/ Jensen_Vistisen_The_Ethics_of_User_Experience_Design.pdf

ETİK TASARIM VE ALDATICI TASARIM ÖRÜNTÜLERİ: TURİZM VE SEYAHAT WEB SİTELERİ ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA

Year 2025, Volume: 15 Issue: 3, 626 - 645, 01.07.2025

Murat Uluk

https://doi.org/10.7456/tojdac.1671123

Abstract

Günümüzde çevrim içi platformlar, arayüz tasarımlarında kullanıcıları yönlendirecek çeşitli tasarım ögelerine yer vermektedir. Bu tasarım ögeleri yanıltıcı olduğunda aldatıcı tasarım örüntüleri olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Örüntüler, kullanıcının yapmayı düşünmediği bir şeyi yaptırmaya çalışmak ve planını bozmak için kasten oluşturmuş tasarımlardan oluşmaktadır. Bu tür örüntüler kullanıcının bilinçli seçim yapma sürecine zarar vermekte ve özgür iradelerini zayıflatmaktadır. Kullanıcılar kendilerine rehberlik eden seçeneklere değil, platformun kendi çıkarlarına doğru yönlendirilmektedir. Tasarım etiği bakımından sorunlu olan söz konusu durum çalışmanın ana merakını oluşturmaktadır. Çalışma, Türkiye’deki en çok ziyaret edilen turizm ve seyahat kategorisindeki web sitelerinde aldatıcı örüntülerin varlığını ortaya çıkarmak üzere inşa edilmiştir. Henüz yerli literatürde gerçekleştirilmiş benzer bir çalışmanın bulunmaması, araştırmanın alana önemli bir katkı sunmasına yardımcı olmaktadır. Araştırma kapsamında incelenen 10 web sitesi ve 47 web sayfasında toplam 139 adet aldatıcı örüntü tespit edilmiştir. Tasarımda en çok başvurulan aldatıcı örüntü, arayüz tasarımındaki çeşitli yanıltıcı yapılar içeren arayüz paraziti olmuştur. Çalışmanın başta arayüz tasarımında etik ve etik web olmak üzere kullanıcı davranışlarına ve tercihlerine saygı duyan sistemlerin geliştirilmesi konularına ışık tutması beklenmektedir.

Keywords

Aldatıcı örüntüler dark patterns etik tasarım arayüz tasarımı web tasarım

Ethical Statement

Çalışmada etik kurul onayı gerektiren bir unsur bulunmamaktadır.

References

  • Balkan, A. ve Kalbag, L. (2015). Ethical Design. https://ind.ie/ethical-design/
  • Becker, C. U. (2021). Ethical principles for design in the 21st century. Social Science Research Network. 10.2139/ssrn.3631525
  • Brenncke, M. (2023). Regulating dark patterns. Social Science Research Network. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4588652
  • Brignull, H. (2011, 1 Kasım). Dark patterns: Deception vs. honesty in UI design. A List Apart. https://alistapart.com/article/dark-patterns-deception-vs-honesty-in-ui-design/
  • Brignull, H. (2023). Deceptive patterns: Exposing the tricks tech companies use to control you. Testimonium Ltd.
  • Browne, W. ve Jones, M. (2017). What works in e-commerce—A meta-analysis of 6700 online experiments. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/What-works-in-e-commerce-a-meta-analysis-of-6700-Browne-Jones/e1ee31039ec554152f597588ae7bef9192b3d2d2
  • Calawen, D. (2022). Dark patterns: Effect on overall user experience and site revisitation [Yayınlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi, TU Dublin]. https://arrow.tudublin.ie/scschcomdis/246
  • Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (3. bs). SAGE Publications.
  • Creswell, J. W. ve Clark, V. L. P. (2018). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (3. bs). SAGE Publications.
  • Çomu, T. ve Halaiqa, İ. (2015). Web içeriklerinin metin temelli çözümlemesi. M. Binark (Ed.), Yeni medya çalışmalarında araştırma yöntem ve teknikleri içinde (2. bs). Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Devon, R. E., ve Poel, I. (2004). Design ethics: The social ethics paradigm. International Journal of Engineering Education, 20, 461-469.
  • Di Geronimo, L., Braz, L., Fregnan, E., Palomba, F., & Bacchelli, A. (2020). UI dark patterns and where to find them: A study on mobile applications and user perception. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems içinde, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376600
  • Erdem, Ö. (2024). Arayüz tasarımlarında karanlık örüntüler (dark patterns) ve kullanıcı deneyimleri üzerine bir araştırma (Tez No. 896429) [Yayımlanmamış doktora tezi, Çukurova Üniversitesi, Ulusal Tez Merkezi].
  • Fabris, A. (2018). Ethics of information and communication technologies. Springer Cham. Falbe, T., Frederiksen, M. M., & Andersen, K. (2020). The ethical design handbook. Smashing Media.
  • Frankena, W. (2007). Etik (A. Aydın, Çev.). İmge Kitabevi Yayınları.
  • FTC Staff Report. (2022). Bringing dark patterns to light. https://www.ftc.gov/reports/bringing-dark-patterns-light
  • Galitz, W. O. (2002). The essential guide to user interface design: An introduction to GUI design principles and techniques (2. bs). Wiley.
  • Guerrini, M. ve Wang, J. (2020). How dark patterns are affecting online consumers booking behaviors. [Yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi, SKEMA Business School].
  • Gunawan, J., Pradeep, A., Choffnes, D., Hartzog, W., & Wilson, C. (2021). A comparative study of dark patterns across web and mobile modalities. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction içinde. 1-19. 10.1145/3479521
  • Hartzog, W. (2018). Privacy’s blueprint: The battle to control the design of new technologies. Harvard University Press.
  • Holmberg, E., ve Manse, S. (2023). Dark patterns in the travel industry: A study on users’ perception of dark patterns on airline companies’ websites [Yayımlanmamış Lisans Tezi, Uppsala University]. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1735141/FULLTEXT01.pdf
  • Karadoğan Doruk, E. (2015). İknanın sosyal psikolojisi: Temel kavramlar ve kuramlarıyla. Derin Yayınları. Kim, W. G., Pillai, S. G., Haldorai, K., & Ahmad, W. (2021). Dark patterns used by online travel agency websites. Annals of Tourism Research, 88(C). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103055
  • Kranzberg, M. (1986). Technology and history: “Kranzberg’s Laws”. Technology and Culture, 27(3), 544-560. 10.2307/3105385
  • Leiser, M., ve Santos, C. (2024). Dark patterns, enforcement, and the emerging digital design acquis: Manipulation beneath the interface. European Journal of Law and Technology, 15(1). https://ejlt.org/index.php/ejlt/article/view/990
  • Leonhard, G. (2020). Teknolojiye karşı insanlık. Siyah Kitap.
  • Luguri, J., ve Strahilevitz, L. J. (2021). Shining a light on dark patterns. Journal of Legal Analysis, 13(1), 43-109. https://doi.org/10.1093/jla/laaa006
  • Maier, M., ve Harr, R. (2020). Dark design patterns: An end-user perspective. Human Technology, 2(16), 170-199. 10.17011/ht/urn.202008245641
  • Mathur, A., Acar, G., Friedman, M. J., Lucherini, E., Mayer, J., Chetty, M., & Narayanan, A. (2019). Dark patterns at scale: Findings from a crawl of 11k shopping websites. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction içinde. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359183
  • Mathur, A., Kshirsagar, M., & Mayer, J. (2021). What makes a dark pattern... Dark? design attributes, normative considerations, and measurement methods. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems içinde, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445610
  • Mulvenna, M., Boger, J., & Bond, R. (2017). Ethical by design: A manifesto. Proceedings of the European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics içinde, 51-54. https://doi.org/10.1145/3121283.3121300
  • Narayanan, A., Mathur, A., Chetty, M., & Kshirsagar, M. (2020). Dark patterns: Past, present, and future: The evolution of tricky user interfaces. Queue, 18(2), s. 67-92. https://doi.org/10.1145/3400899.3400901
  • Neuman, W. L. (2014). Toplumsal araştırma yöntemleri, nitel ve nicel yaklaşımlar 2. Cilt (S. Özge, Çev.; 7. bs). Yayınodası Yayıncılık.
  • Noggle, R. (2022). The Ethics of manipulation. E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2022) içinde. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/ethics-manipulation/
  • Norman, D. (2002). The Design of everyday things. A Currency Book.
  • Sánchez Chamorro, L., Bongard-Blanchy, K., & Koenig, V. (2023). Ethical tensions in UX design practice: Exploring the fine line between persuasion and manipulation in online interfaces. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference içinde, s. 2408-2422. https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3596013
  • Similarweb. (2025). Top travel and tourism websites ranking in Turkey. https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/turkey/travel-and-tourism/travel-and-tourism/
  • Stone, D., Jarrett, C., Woodroffe, M., & Minocha, S. (2005). User interface design and evaluation. Elsevier.
  • Türe, T. (2024). Video oyunlarında kullanılan mikro ödeme yöntemlerinin haksız rekabet ve tüketici hukuku açısından değerlendirilmesi. Sakarya Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi, 12(2). 935-963. https://doi.org/10.56701/shd.1542034
  • Vistisen, P. ve Jensen, T. (2013). The ethics of user experience design. THICOMP 2013 Conference Proceedings içinde. https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/197682362/ Jensen_Vistisen_The_Ethics_of_User_Experience_Design.pdf
There are 39 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Subjects Internet Publishing, New Media, Web Design, Visual Communication Design (Other)
Journal Section RESEARCH ARTICLES
Authors

Murat Uluk 0000-0001-5923-8468

Early Pub Date June 30, 2025
Publication Date July 1, 2025
Submission Date April 7, 2025
Acceptance Date June 27, 2025
Published in Issue Year 2025 Volume: 15 Issue: 3

Cite

APA Uluk, M. (2025). ETİK TASARIM VE ALDATICI TASARIM ÖRÜNTÜLERİ: TURİZM VE SEYAHAT WEB SİTELERİ ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA. Turkish Online Journal of Design Art and Communication, 15(3), 626-645. https://doi.org/10.7456/tojdac.1671123
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