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Guest lecture on deceptive patterns and the ethical design of digital user interfaces

On November 28, 2025, Johannes Lehner (Lead Usability Engineer and UX Designer at Intact) held an online practical lecture at the invitation of the Chair of Legal Informatics esp. Natural Language Processing. During his presentation, he talked about the use of dark patterns in the development and use of digital user interfaces.

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Last Friday, our guest speaker introduced students studying in the LL.M. Legal Informatics program to dark and deceptive patterns in context of designing and using digital user interfaces. He illustrated their concept and application, as well as the various pattern types, with practical examples.

Among other things, Johannes Lehner explained how pattern types such as Confirm Shaming, the Roach Motel, and Privacy Zuckering affect the user experience (UX) of using digital user interfaces. He also discussed with the students how to evaluate the degree of a dark pattern, the importance of considering ethical principles when designing digital interfaces, and how ethical design scorecards can inform the design process.

Participants in the course had the opportunity to discuss current legal requirements and regulations with our guest speaker and learn about patterns that can be used when designing a user interface involving artificial intelligence.

We sincerly thank Johannes Lehner for his interesting presentation and for sharing practical insights into the technical and ethical design principles of graphical user interfaces with our students.

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