On November 18 we launched our Tech Policy Design Lab — a space for policymakers, tech companies and web users to shape a safer, more empowering web for everyone.
The launch event, hosted by the National Science and Media Museum, was opened by our President and CEO Adrian Lovett, who set out our vision of a Lab that will prototype and develop policy and product solutions to limit the worst of humanity and encourage the best. A panel of experts from government, companies, civil society and academia then discussed why moving from deceptive design towards trusted design patterns is critical to creating the web we want.
Click below to watch the YouTube livestream of the event.
Over the coming months, we’ll:
- Gather evidence of the potential harms of deceptive design
- Bring together policymakers, tech companies and researchers who can help solve this problem and work with them to co-create alternatives for more ethical, empathetic, trusted design
- Follow up to ensure those alternatives are put into action to build a safe and empowering web for everyone
Learn more about the Lab and sign up for updates.
A note on language
This Tech Policy Design Lab project was originally called “Dark Patterns – Moving Towards Trusted Design”. Though “Dark Patterns” has been the prevailing term to describe the problem for several years, this language reinforces the exclusionary framing that “dark” is “bad” and “light” is “good”. That’s why, after engaging with our community, we have changed the project name to “Deceptive Design: Moving Towards Trusted Design Patterns”.
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Tim Berners-Lee, our co-founder, gave the web to the world for free, but fighting for it comes at a cost. Please support our work to build a safe, empowering web for everyone.