Evaluating Adversarial Interfaces: An Automated Approach

Contrary to the idealistic notion that human-computer interfaces are designed to actively help users accomplish their goals, millions of people who use the World Wide Web every day encounter a wide variety of interfaces that aggressively divert users toward the goals of the designer and away from those of the user. We label such strategies "adversarial interface design." Techniques of adversarial design include coercion, confusion, distraction, exploiting errors, forced work, interruption, manipulating navigation, obfuscation, restricting functionality, shock, and trickery [10]. See Figure 1 for several illustrations of these techniques. A key distinction of adversarial design from bad design is the deliberate attempt by the designer to manipulate the user or subvert user intentions.