Future of UX | Your Design, Tech and User Experience Podcast | AI Design

#130 Halloween Special: UX AI Horror Stories and What UX Designers Should Actually Be Worried About

Oct 30, 2025
This Halloween special dives into the shadowy side of UX and AI, exploring real-life manipulative design cases. It discusses the dangers of swift AI rollouts without oversight, highlighting a tragic incident linked to AI. The emotional toll on designers forced to create misleading features is examined, along with the echo chambers created by excessive personalization. The episode also critiques 'seamless' design as potentially harmful and offers actionable advice for ethical design practices. It's a chilling reminder of the responsibilities in digital design.
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INSIGHT

Dark Patterns Lose The Long Game

  • Dark patterns still win short-term metrics but erode trust and legal risk is rising.
  • Regulations like the EU DSA and FTC actions are making manipulative UX legally risky.
ANECDOTE

Personal Struggle Cancelling Amazon Prime

  • Patricia recalls struggling to cancel Amazon Prime after moving countries and encountering a confusing flow.
  • She uses this personal experience to illustrate how subscription flows manipulate users.
INSIGHT

AI Is Not Plug-And-Play

  • Many AI features are experiments disguised as products and can harm users when deployed prematurely.
  • AI mimics judgment without ethics, so teams must treat it as a socio-technical system, not a plug-and-play tool.
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