Ethical Tensions In UX Design Practice: Exploring The Fine Line Between Persuasion And Manipulation In Online Interfaces

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HCI researchers are increasingly concerned about the prevalence of manipulative design strategies in user interfaces, commonly referred to as "dark patterns". The line between manipulation and persuasion strategies is often blurred, leading to legal and ethical concerns. This paper examines the tension between persuasive UX practices and manipulative designs. UX/UI design professionals (n=22), split into eight focus groups, conducted design activities on two fictitious scenarios. We qualitatively analysed their discussions regarding strategies for influencing user behaviours and their underlying reasoning. Our findings reveal a combination of classical UI design strategies like sticky interfaces and incentives as their most common practice to influence user behaviour. We also unveil that trust, transparency, and user autonomy act as guiding principles for the professionals in assessing their ideas. However, a thorough approach is missing; despite a general user-first attitude, they feel constrained by contextual factors. We explain how the tensions between principles and context contribute to manipulative designs online.