‘Move fast and break things’ – an internal motto used by Facebook until 2014, describes in a nutshell how short-sighted business goals and fast-track development with skeletal user testing impact us as individuals, as a society and the design industry. Dark Patterns are everywhere and most of the time we don’t even notice them. Still, they take a toll on our physical and mental health and societal cohesion. So what are Dark Patterns and how do they actually work?

Since July 2020, Swiss companies with more than 100 employees are obliged by law to perform a gender pay gap analysis. The interest in using analytic tools for salary data to identify, reduce and remove salary discrimination has increased. Important ethical questions arise when developing and implementing tools.