A Temporal Dark Patterns Audit of McDonald's Self-Ordering Kiosk Flow

phendrenad2

The original paper that introduced the Temporal Analysis of Dark Patterns (TADP) framework focuses on the opt-out flow for Amazon Audible, which is, as everyone can guess, FULL of dark patterns. This paper, strangely enough, chooses to focus on McDonald's kiosks. Okay, I'm open-minded, maybe there are dark patterns there. But no, the paper seems to deem any interactivity or messaging beyond a paper menu a "dark pattern". I call this "dark patternflation". Soon businesses will have to actively DIScourage people from buying their products to avoid academics calling it "dark patterns" (and they'll still call that "the dark pattern of reverse-psychology"!)

Canada

That whole business is a dark pattern.