Adam Silver’s Post

Wild West things I’ve seen this week; - continue button that reveals a set of radios, with its own continue button - a back button under the CTA - Inline radios with a reveal. I feel your pain.

You're absolutely right. I can't help but think that many instances of this are actually done on purpose, precisely because "this risks users not seeing the content". #deceptiveDesignPattern

This feels less like a dark pattern, and more of a new-use-case-that-the-system-can't-support. The underlying content architecture is relevant: there just may not be a way to put text before the button. eg. when the form was designed, there was a use case for text after but not before the button. So authors being authors will put the text wherever they can using the text boxes available in the interface. (In this case, text after the button is not ideal but it's still better that it's there than not. but actually, reading the text... mmm... it's kinda meh isn't it? And doesn't feel particularly critical to the experience. (A last minute legal ask?!)) Of course, designers need to anticipate such use cases, especially in forms or any input content types, as there's typically other tech under the hood (eg customer relationship manager tools) that needs to be accounted for early vs trying to retrofit later. eg. at PayPal, we built a form in the CMS for <one use case> but I designed with future functionality in mind, so it was available for as many use cases as possible.

A wild "Before you start" paragraph appears.

This approach works well; decision-making should be done at the end of the story. However, on landing pages, users often don't read the entire content. Placing the CTA in the middle can yield positive results by capturing attention early and encouraging action.

Totally agree. In circumstances like this where you want the user to acknowledge that they are saying the information they're submitting is truthful / correct / accurate, before the Send CTA button I have added a check box next to a simple statement of truthfulness and accuracy that the user must select to show they agree. 'The information I have provided is truthful and accurate to the best of my knowledge.' [Tick Agree] You can also add another statement to forewarn a user of adverse consequences of submitting false or inaccurate information, again, prompting them to tick a check box to acknowledge this. 'I understand that if I knowingly provide false or inaccurate information, I may be fined or prosecuted.' In some services I've worked on, we've designed a deliberate 'stop and pause' for users by adding an additional screen that covers a declaration of truthfulness and consequences, so that a user is more likely to read it/see it, and to slow down the natural impulse to just scan to the bottom of the screen and press Send.

Also, make sure to update the content. Either 'details you're providing' or 'details you've provided' 🙂

I agree too. This is a well used pattern within GOV.UK called Make a declaration, though it’s never been published. 🤔

Who does this?! I just wanna talk.

Agreed. Maybe some companies are putting text after buttons on purpose? It could be a dark pattern where they don’t actually want you to see the text, while still covering themselves legally 😅