Finalized Project! (Blog #3)

Reflection

Content:

From my final project, I learned the negative impact dark patterns such as cookie-consent banners can have on users. Before this project, I was like many users who brushed off the possible implications of these patterns, thinking that they would not significantly affect me. However, after researching the topic in-depth and discovering that dark patterns do adapt to specific websites, I have become more aware of the impact of dark patterns.

I hope to use this knowledge in college-level computer science research as my topic is inherently related to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), which is a field of research related to computer science.

Product:

From the presentation and the paper, I learned to take a broader perspective on my writing and further improve my research skills as I had to be able to justify almost every aspect of my research, from every minute detail of my methodology to selecting my websites, recording them, and analyzing them. Additionally, the comprehensive nature of the oral defense also required me to be immensely knowledgeable about the overall scope of conclusions made by current research. I will likely apply these experiences to college-level research as I seek to conduct undergraduate research when I attend UCI.

Process:

From this process, I learned that I, as a student, have still much to learn and improve on in making presentations and public speaking as my original presentation was quite lackluster, to say the least. Without the feedback of Ms. Dobos, I believe that I would not have scored as well on the final presentation as I did. Thus, I hope to transfer the mindset of actively seeking feedback and learning from my missteps so I can further improve and succeed in college.

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank Ms. Dobos and Mr. McBride for teaching this class at RCHS as they worked tirelessly to make sure everyone met deadlines and got in their paper on time without issue. AP Research is not a commonly taught class in some schools, and being able to have a chance to improve my research skills is a great opportunity, especially in a high school environment. Additionally, the feedback I received from Ms. Dobos was integral to my success in my final presentation.

Additionally, I would like to thank Ms. Uchyn, RCHS's AP Statistics teacher, for helping guide me through conducting statistical tests to allow me to view my data from an objective standpoint and draw accurate conclusions from my data.

Finally, I would like to thank my Mom and Dad, for supporting me throughout the research process and even listening to my presentation, giving me concise and constructive feedback so I could improve my project beyond what I would be able to do myself.

Abstract + Links

Abstract:

Over the past few years, the implementation of dark patterns online has rapidly grown, expanding from e-commerce websites to even political campaigns. The term dark pattern refers to “Instances where designers use their knowledge of human behavior [...] and the desires of end users to implement deceptive functionality that is not in the user’s best interest” (Brignull, 2023; Gray, et al., 2018). In my study, I examine the link between political affiliation (Left/Liberal, Moderate, and Right/Conservative) of online news websites and the frequency of dark patterns present. I select websites categorized by Bakshy, et al. and record ten-minute videos of each website, analyzing them for five major dark patterns: Nagging, Interface Interference, Sneaking, Obstruction, and Forced Action. Within my study, I discovered that there is moderate evidence to suggest that the political affiliation of an online news website impacts the number of dark patterns on a website. When examining specific trends, specific dark patterns were found to be more common in specific political affiliations in contrast to other affiliations.

Link to my Finalized Paper

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16P6bxOYYH76SEXpkRqP4BryObnh5ojt7Hl7uKFUso7Y/edit

Link to my Final presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PdFtXvtlWjnsIHPWlqxpqqrPEc6kvzhxBsQQPx335-E/edit#slide=id.p

Future Plans

After graduating high school, I will be attending the University of California, Irvine (UCI) majoring in Computer Science. While my plans when I am in college are not entirely clear to me now, I hope to join a diverse set of clubs to further my interests, such as Photography with the Anteater Photography Organization (APO) (See photo on the right). Furthermore, I hope to possibly engage in undergraduate research at UCI, allowing me to apply the integral skills of the AP Research course to college-level research.