Judith Faßbender
Facing the Interface – A participatory Database for hidden Guidance in Interfaces

Facing the Interface is a participatory Database, collecting moments of subliminal guidance in Interfaces. Small manipulative tricks, based on psychological insights, are implemented to influence the user‘s choice.

The decisions might be as small as choosing this and not that flight, to watch yet another video or checking your mailbox once more. The interventions range from colour and positioning, to presumed consensus or the use of social norms. Singled out these moments don’t seem substantial. Added and put in the context of platforms, where we decide about social interaction or our jobs, and pay with time and attention, the influence gains momentum.

The database reclaims agency from the user’s side. Using the feeling of playing against a hidden force. An Instrument for a forensic analysis of behavioural influences is provided, to open the archive for new entries. The collected juxtapositions expose the pattern of the invisible power structure. Facing the interface aims to contribute to the vocabulary and evidence needed, to open a discussion – negotiating a code of conduct for the use of behavioural science as a tool.