Dark Patterns
Card Game Workshop
An interactive, hands-on workshop that teaches you how to identify, understand, and combat dark patterns through gameplay.
How the Workshop Works
30 min to 1 hour
Through a series of card-based exercises, participants learn to identify, analyze, and redesign dark patterns in digital products.
Team-Based Learning
Work in small groups to solve challenges, analyze real-world examples, and create ethical alternatives to manipulative designs.
Comprehensive Materials
Each participant receives a deck of dark pattern cards, worksheets, and digital resources to continue learning after the workshop.
Practical Takeaways
Leave with actionable strategies to identify dark patterns in your own work and create more ethical, user-respecting designs.
How to Play the Card Game
Play the most deceptive (and funny) Dark Pattern Card in response to a Scenario Card to win points and climb the Deception Ladder.
Players
4-5 designers (or villains-in-training)
A Card Game About Dark Patterns & Digital Sustainability
Set Up
- Deal 3 Dark Pattern Cards to each player.
- Place the remaining decks in the center.
- Randomly choose a starting Reader (e.g., youngest player, rock-paper-scissors winner).
Cards
Scenarios: Real-world design challenges
Dark Patterns: Deceptive design tactics
Each color represents a different dark pattern category
How to Play
The Reader draws a Scenario Card and reads it aloud.
Each player (excluding the Reader) picks 1 card from their hand that best fits (or humorously breaks) the scenario.
Play it face to the Reader.
The Reader reads them aloud, and picks the one they think best fits the scenario.
Players can briefly debate which is the most deceptive/funny (1 min max).
Everyone votes on the best response.
Optional Voting: If players disagree, the Reader selects top 2, then everyone (except submitters) votes.
Rotate the reader clockwise and repeat!
Download the Card Set
The Dark Pattern Cards include 35+ shady design tactics like Nagging, Obstruction, and Sneaking, all neatly sorted into categories that make evil easy to understand. The Scenario Cards come with 28 fill-in-the-blank prompts guaranteed to spark lively debates, questionable decisions, and the occasional identity crisis. Perfect for design teams, classrooms, and UX workshops, this hands-on game turns shady design into serious learning. Play, plot, and then reflect—because knowing how to deceive is the first step to designing ethically.
Note: These materials are provided for educational purposes. Please credit Deceptive By Design when using these materials.
Upcoming Workshops
Online Workshop: Dark Patterns Fundamentals
A virtual session covering the basics of dark patterns and how to combat them.
New York: In-Person Workshop
Join us for an intensive hands-on session at the Design Ethics Conference.
London: Advanced Dark Patterns Workshop
A deep dive into complex dark patterns and regulatory frameworks.
Bring the Workshop to Your Organization
We offer customized workshops for companies, universities, conferences, and other organizations.
Custom Workshop Options
For Design & Product Teams
Help your team identify dark patterns in your products and develop ethical alternatives that still meet business goals.
For Educational Institutions
Give students hands-on experience with ethical design principles through our engaging card game format.
For Conferences & Events
Add an interactive, engaging workshop to your conference program that attendees will remember.
What People Are Saying
"This workshop completely changed how our team thinks about UX. We identified three dark patterns in our own product that we've since redesigned ethically."
Jamie Doe
Product Manager, Tech Company
"The card game format made learning about dark patterns fun and memorable. My students are still talking about it weeks later."
Alex Smith
Professor, Design University