Guilty Load
Making account management and privacy control intentionally difficult and frustrating for users.
Altruheuristics
Biology
- Trust: The user is made to feel that they are being pressured into staying when they want to leave.
CBT Distortions
- Emotional Reasoning e.g. I feel guilty of deleting.
- Catastrophizing e.g. The copy amplifies severity.
Biases
- Loss Aversion
- Extraneous Cognitive Load
- Conformity Bias
- Salient Bias
Circ’s Principles
- Balance: Always think about keeping the user in allostasis.
- Calmness: Provide all information required upfront before the journey.
- Transparency: Reduce anxiety by removing uncertainty and explaining algorithm updates.
- Expectations: Reduce stress by providing control and reassurance of outcome.
Mental Health
- None.
Traditional Heuristics
Jakob Nielson Principles
- Match Real World: Same as above.
- Aesthetic and Minimalist Design: The user is overwhelmed with information and persuasive copy.
Gestalt
- None
Don Norman Principles
- Conceptual Model: Finding and quitting a service in the real world is straight forward.
Graphic Design
- None
Deceptive Patterns
- Hard to Cancel: The user finds it easy to sign up or subscribe, but when they want to cancel they find it very hard.