Influence only transparently.
Use persuasion users could recognize and endorse.
Contents 7. Trust, Safety & Responsibility 6. Non-Manipulation
How the system influences user choices.
First, ask yourself
“Does your system influence users only in ways they would endorse if they saw how it works?”
Mission statement
Ensure users act on their own intent by excluding interface techniques that exploit bias, pressure, or concealment.
Key heuristics Non-Manipulation
- Influence must be transparent to the person influenced.
- Leaving must be as easy as joining.
- Costs and conditions must be disclosed before commitment.
- Urgency and scarcity signals must be true.
- Declining an offer must not be framed as a fault.
- Options against the system’s interest must be equally visible.
- Consent must not be obtained through pre-checked or bundled choices.
- Interface patterns must not exploit habit to trigger unintended actions.
- Engagement features must not override users’ stated limits.
Executive brief
The system must persuade only through information, never through deception, pressure, or friction against the user’s interest.
Core questions Non-Manipulation
“Would users endorse this design if they understood how it influences them?”
“Is the user’s easiest path also the one in the user’s interest?”
Focus areas
Symmetry-first
“Is canceling as easy as subscribing?”
“Is ‘no’ as visible as ‘yes’?”
Truth-aware
“Are countdowns, stock levels, and popularity claims real?”
“Are total costs visible before commitment?”
Pressure-aware
“Does wording shame a refusal?”
“Does the interface interrupt to push a choice?”
AI-aware
“Does personalization exploit known weaknesses?”
“Can conversational agents pressure users in ways a static interface could not?”
UX directives Non-Manipulation
Make exit as easy as entry.
Provide cancellation, unsubscribing, and deletion with no more steps than signing up.
Disclose costs before commitment.
Show full price, recurring charges, and conditions before users agree.
Use only true urgency and scarcity.
Do not display timers, stock levels, or demand signals that are not real.
Do not shame refusal.
Phrase declining options neutrally.
Give equal visibility to all options.
Do not hide or de-emphasize choices that work against the system’s interest.
Obtain consent explicitly.
Do not pre-check, bundle, or hide consent choices.
Do not exploit habit.
Avoid moving or restyling controls so that routine actions trigger unintended results.
Honor users’ limits.
Do not let engagement features override time, spending, or notification limits users set.
Executive summary
- Non-Manipulation is influence through information, not through exploitation.
- It excludes deception, pressure, concealment, and asymmetric friction.
- The system must make exit as easy as entry and disclose costs before commitment.
- Urgency, scarcity, and consent must be truthful and explicit.
- Options against the system’s interest must be as visible as options for it.
- Non-Manipulation succeeds when users would make the same choice with full knowledge of how the interface works.
Success indicators
- Canceling takes no more steps than signing up.
- Full costs are visible before commitment.
- Urgency and scarcity claims are true.
- Declining options are neutral and equally visible.
- Consent choices are unchecked by default and specific.
One-line summary
Before users can trust a system’s guidance, it must never work against them.