I have a feeling that this HN submission is rather some test run which dark patterns work well on technically affine users. :-)
A knowledge which dark patterns even work well for technically affine users while still being "socially acceptable" can be worth a lot of money to specific companies.
as someone who builds mobile games, the execution here is great. but what makes dark patterns actually effective isn't really the visual tricks, it's the context they exploit: time pressure, social pressure, and cognitive load.
you're standing at a checkout with someone watching, a line forming behind you, and the default tip is pre-selected at 25%. the "trick" isn't the UI, it's that calculating a custom amount requires more effort than just tapping accept.
same principle applies in mobile game monetization. the IAP prompt doesn't convert because the button is cleverly placed, it converts because you just failed a level, you're emotionally invested, and the "fix" is one tap away. the real pattern is always: create urgency, minimize friction for the desired action, maximize friction for the alternative.
Bot account. Last active with two posts in 2017, then started spamming today with the usual HN spambot formula. As usual, doing the weird thing that only the HN spambots do where it's almost always exactly three paragraphs of 1-2 sentences each. Not sure why they prompt for that formula but it makes it very easy to spot out. For me, I guess. This is voted to the top and the bot has over 50 karma so apparently most people are unable to detect LLM spam even when they make it as obvious as they possibly can.
I just wish they would use bigger models. These ones always write stuff that makes no sense. Like it says "the same principle applies to mobile games" then describes a different principle
Nice! I’ve started only tipping on fridays for coffee, etc.
I’m a great tipper at restaurants
But being hit up for a $5 tip for a $4 drink is way wrong.
I’d tip you, but today is Thursday!
I tip great at sit-down restaurants. I don't tip at fast food places, or carry-outs where they don't actually provide and service, or at the oil change place.
Summary: if I didn't tip in a situation 10 years ago, I'm not going to start now.
I tip my barista and budtender a dollar every visit, personally. I love those people though. Restaurants get 20% unless they fuck up, then it's 15%, unless it was absolutely egregious.
My current strategy for how much total I'll pay for a coffee is FlOOR(price+.50) + 1, which keeps the bill nice and clean and kicks some goodwill towards someone who makes less than 1/5th the average earnings of my coworkers.
This was cool, but I got to one where it would load after every button you click. That's fine, but then I "lost" because it simply wouldn't load a winnable option in time it seems. Maybe I was moving too fast and missed the real button, but I still didn't tip in the end, so eh.
A knowledge which dark patterns even work well for technically affine users while still being "socially acceptable" can be worth a lot of money to specific companies.
you're standing at a checkout with someone watching, a line forming behind you, and the default tip is pre-selected at 25%. the "trick" isn't the UI, it's that calculating a custom amount requires more effort than just tapping accept.
same principle applies in mobile game monetization. the IAP prompt doesn't convert because the button is cleverly placed, it converts because you just failed a level, you're emotionally invested, and the "fix" is one tap away. the real pattern is always: create urgency, minimize friction for the desired action, maximize friction for the alternative.
Or maybe it's not, who knows? It's sometimes hard to tell with comments.
It's just the times we live in, uncertainty is a given, most of the time we don't know. I guess we'll have to make do.
0% is easy to calculate.
Summary: if I didn't tip in a situation 10 years ago, I'm not going to start now.
That's it. I cut my own hair.
Mobile offers a speed boost for taps but heavy nerf to text entry tasks.
"Just the tip"