1 00:00:01,239 --> 00:00:05,967 MICHELLE: While dark patterns are intentionally deceitful, 2 00:00:05,967 --> 00:00:10,319 not all unethical design decisions have bad intent. 3 00:00:10,319 --> 00:00:14,829 An anti-pattern is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually 4 00:00:14,829 --> 00:00:19,060 ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive. 5 00:00:19,060 --> 00:00:22,919 On the surface, it may seem like a reasonable solution but 6 00:00:22,919 --> 00:00:25,375 leads to unintended consequences. 7 00:00:25,375 --> 00:00:28,498 In software engineer Liz Abinante's talk, 8 00:00:28,498 --> 00:00:33,790 The Social Responsibility of Coding, she illustrates an anti-pattern. 9 00:00:33,790 --> 00:00:38,940 MaxMind is a mapping tool that provides location data for IP addresses. 10 00:00:38,940 --> 00:00:43,110 The default IP address for the United States is a long number 11 00:00:43,110 --> 00:00:45,430 representing the exact middle of the country. 12 00:00:46,550 --> 00:00:51,430 For simplicity, MaxMind decided to round it down to the nearest whole number. 13 00:00:51,430 --> 00:00:54,810 It's quite common for one's location not to be exact, so 14 00:00:54,810 --> 00:00:58,270 a country's generic IP is often used. 15 00:00:58,270 --> 00:01:01,770 This resulted in about 600 million people's 16 00:01:01,770 --> 00:01:05,500 IP addresses defaulting to a farm in Kansas. 17 00:01:05,500 --> 00:01:07,870 The family who lived on that farm was harassed for 18 00:01:07,870 --> 00:01:12,020 15 years, including being accused of crimes they hadn't committed. 19 00:01:13,420 --> 00:01:16,130 Even death is at stake for some products. 20 00:01:16,130 --> 00:01:20,200 The book Tragic Design gives the example of Therac-25, 21 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:25,125 a radiation therapy machine used to treat cancer in the 1980s. 22 00:01:25,125 --> 00:01:29,668 A software bug caused massive overdoses in six patients causing death and 23 00:01:29,668 --> 00:01:32,475 sustained lifelong injuries. 24 00:01:32,475 --> 00:01:37,115 The device was later recalled in favor of hardware safeguards to protect against 25 00:01:37,115 --> 00:01:38,175 software errors. 26 00:01:39,265 --> 00:01:44,330 Now let's take a look at some minor examples that are still quite frustrating. 27 00:01:44,330 --> 00:01:47,980 Have you ever filled out a form only to get an error? 28 00:01:47,980 --> 00:01:51,930 Or go back a step and the form clears your entered text? 29 00:01:51,930 --> 00:01:55,970 What about a form with placeholder text that looks like buttons, or 30 00:01:55,970 --> 00:01:57,140 disappears when clicked? 31 00:01:58,370 --> 00:02:02,560 As you browse the web, take stock of the anti-patterns you find. 32 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:05,720 You'd be amazed at how many you'd find once you're aware of them.