Dark Patterns in Proxemic Interactions: A Critical Perspective

Greenberg, S., Boring, S., Vermeulen, J. and Dostal, J. (2014)
Dark Patterns in Proxemic Interactions: A Critical Perspective. In Proc. ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems - ACM DIS'2014. (Vancouver, Canada), pages 523-532, June 21-25. <B>Best Paper Award</B>. Earlier slightly different version as (Report 2014-1055-05, January, 2014.

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Abstract

Proxemics theory explains peoples' use of interpersonal distances to mediate their social interactions with others. Within Ubicomp, proxemic interaction researchers argue that people have a similar social understanding of their spatial relations with nearby digital devices, which can be exploited to better facilitate seamless and natural interactions. To do so, both people and devices are tracked to determine their spatial relationships. While interest in proxemic interactions has increased over the last few years, it also has a dark side: knowledge of proxemics may (and likely will) be easily exploited to the detriment of the user. In this paper, we offer a critical perspective on proxemic interactions in the form of dark patterns: ways proxemic interactions can be misused. We discuss a series of these patterns and describe how they apply to these types of interactions. In addition, we identify several root problems that underlie these patterns and discuss potential solutions that could lower their harmfulness.

Keywords

Dark patterns, anti-patterns, proxemic interactions

Bibtex entry

@INPROCEEDINGS { 2014-DarkPatterns.DIS,
CLASS = { ARTICLE },
AUTHOR = { Greenberg, S. and Boring, S. and Vermeulen, J. and Dostal, J. },
TITLE = { Dark Patterns in Proxemic Interactions: A Critical Perspective },
YEAR = { 2014 },
MONTH = { June 21-25 },
BOOKTITLE = { Proc. ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems - ACM DIS'2014 },
ADDRESS = { Vancouver, Canada },
PAGES = { 523-532 },
DOI = { http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2598510.2598541 },
NOTE = { <B>Best Paper Award</B>. Earlier slightly different version as (Report 2014-1055-05, January, 2014 },
KEYWORDS = { Dark patterns, anti-patterns, proxemic interactions },
}