The other day I was browsing YouTube — as one does — and I clicked a link in the video description to a book.
I was then subjected to a man-in-the-middle attack, where YouTube put themselves in the middle of me and the link I had clicked:
Hyperlinks are subversive. Big Tech must protect themselves and their interests.
But link hijacking isn’t why I’m writing this post.
What struck me was the ordering and visual emphasis of the “call to action” (CTA) buttons. I almost clicked “Back to YouTube”, which was precisely the action I didn’t want.
I paused and laughed to myself.
Look how the design pattern for primary/secondary user interface controls has inverted over time:
- Classic software:
- Primary CTA: what’s best for you
- Secondary CTA: an alternative for you
- Modern software:
- Primary CTA: what’s best for us
- Secondary CTA: what’s acceptable to us
It seems like everywhere I go, software is increasingly designed against me.