Common UI has “yes” and “no” (or whatever terms) next to each other, often in different colors. This is mimicing it so you think it’s two separate buttons when it’s one button for “yes”.
And has “cancel …” like you’d expect on a cancel button. If you stop reading or are skimming (we all do it) you think it’s the cancel button. This is very likely a deliberate choice.
Different color, common placement, the word “cancel …”, you go on autopilot, and now you’re subscribed! And good luck trying to cancel.
On a quick inspection the left barely looks like it’s worth reading and it’s easy to miss the link, so you’re led to thinking there’s a yes and a no button on the right. Click the no button and you’ve subscribed to Prime.
Obviously if you stop and actually look at everything you’ll realise what’s up. But this relies on you rushing and being misled in to signing up, which clearly works for them.
It’s absolutely, 100% intentionally misleading. They even recognize that internally and are currently being sued for just that.
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the agency accused Amazon of using deceptive designs, known as “dark patterns,” to deceive consumers into enrolling in Prime, which provides subscribers with perks such as faster shipping for an fee of $139 annually, or $14.99 a month.
The FTC said Amazon made it difficult for customers to purchase an item without also subscribing to Prime. In some cases, consumers were presented with a button to complete their transactions — which didn’t clearly state it would also enroll them in Prime.
Getting out of a subscription was often too complicated, and Amazon leadership slowed or rejected changes that would have made canceling easier, the complaint said.
Internally, Amazon called the process “Iliad,” a reference to the ancient Greek poem about lengthy siege of Troy during the Trojan war.
Don’t forget when they were automatically signing people with an Amazon Echo to Amazon Music. I had to cancel that twice and neither time was there ever a comment or email stating I was enrolled.
Why would it be two buttons on the right, and what behavior would you expect if “Cancel Anytime” was a button?
The goal of this is to get you to sign up for Prime, so there’s nothing yet to cancel.
This is “annoying” design in the sense that getting an upsell is annoying, but I don’t really see it as malicious/asshole.
Common UI has “yes” and “no” (or whatever terms) next to each other, often in different colors. This is mimicing it so you think it’s two separate buttons when it’s one button for “yes”.
And has “cancel …” like you’d expect on a cancel button. If you stop reading or are skimming (we all do it) you think it’s the cancel button. This is very likely a deliberate choice.
Different color, common placement, the word “cancel …”, you go on autopilot, and now you’re subscribed! And good luck trying to cancel.
On a quick inspection the left barely looks like it’s worth reading and it’s easy to miss the link, so you’re led to thinking there’s a yes and a no button on the right. Click the no button and you’ve subscribed to Prime.
Obviously if you stop and actually look at everything you’ll realise what’s up. But this relies on you rushing and being misled in to signing up, which clearly works for them.
It’s absolutely, 100% intentionally misleading. They even recognize that internally and are currently being sued for just that.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/06/21/amazon-prime-without-consent/
Don’t forget when they were automatically signing people with an Amazon Echo to Amazon Music. I had to cancel that twice and neither time was there ever a comment or email stating I was enrolled.