Teaching or Manipulating? On the Adoption of Bright and Deceptive Patterns by Duolingo
Resumo
Introduction: In 2024, Duolingo surpassed 100 million active users, including a large number of children, raising concerns about its design practices. Objective: This study aims to critically examine Duolingo’s interface through the lens of fair and deceptive design patterns, especially regarding children’s rights. Methodology or Steps: We conducted a qualitative analysis of the platform’s visual and interaction elements, focusing on engagement strategies. Expected Results: While Duolingo employs ethical practices like clear interfaces, we identified manipulative patterns such as excessive notifications and emotionally charged visuals. These findings contribute to discussions on ethical design in educational apps for children.
Palavras-chave:
Deceptive Patterns, Fair Patterns, Children’s Rights, Educational Apps, Design Ethics
Referências
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Brenncke, M. (2024). Regulating dark patterns. Notre Dame J. Int’l Comp. L., 14:39.
Brignull, H. (2024). Deceptive patterns: Exposing the tricks tech companies use to control you. Testimonium Ltd.
Chamorro, L. S., Lallemand, C., e Gray, C. M. (2024). " my mother told me these things are always fake"-understanding teenagers’ experiences with manipulative designs. In 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS 2024, pages 1469–1482. ACM Press. 35Rights Foundation - Child Rights by Design - [link].
de Oliveira, L. C., Amaral, M. A., Bim, S. A., Valença, G., Almeida, L. D. A., Salgado, L. C. d. C., Gasparini, I., e da Silva, C. B. R. (2024). Grandihc-br 2025-2035-gc3: Plurality and decoloniality in hci. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 1–19.
Gray, C. M., Kou, Y., Battles, B., Hoggatt, J., e Toombs, A. L. (2018). The dark (patterns) side of ux design. In CHI. Pordue University.
Gupta, C., Campbell, M., Robards, B., e Fordyce, R. (2025). Playing the player: unfair digital gaming practices and their impact on australians. Monash University.
Helamo, A. (2023). Fighting the dark side: a scoping review of dark pattern mitigation. University of Oulu repository.
Jarovsky, L. (2022). Dark patterns in personal data collection: Definition, taxonomy and lawfulness. Taxonomy and Lawfulness (March 1, 2022).
Lacey, C. e Caudwell, C. (2019). Cuteness as a ‘dark pattern’in home robots. In 2019 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), pages 374–381. IEEE.
Livingstone, S., Third, A., e Lansdown, G. (2024). Children vs adults: Negotiating uncrc general comment no. 25 on childrens rights in the digital environment. In Handbook of media and communication governance, pages 414–428. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Loewen, S., Crowther, D., Isbell, D. R., Kim, K. M., Maloney, J., Miller, Z. F., e Rawal, H. (2019). Mobile-assisted language learning: A duolingo case study. ReCALL, 31(3):293–311.
Mejtoft, T., Hale, S., e Söderström, U. (2019). Design friction. In Proceedings of the 31st European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics, pages 41–44.
Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR (2024). Pesquisa sobre o uso da internet por crianças e adolescentes no brasil: Tic kids online brasil, ano 2024. Disponível em: [link]. Acessado em: 25 de agosto de 2025.
Potel-Saville, M. e Da Rocha, M. (2023). From dark patterns to fair patterns? usable taxonomy to contribute solving the issue with countermeasures. In Annual Privacy Forum, pages 145–165. Springer.
Sandhaus, H. (2023). Promoting bright patterns. In CHI. Cornell University.
Shortt, M., Tilak, S., Kuznetcova, I., Martens, B., e Akinkuolie, B. (2023). Gamification in mobile-assisted language learning: A systematic review of duolingo literature from public release of 2012 to early 2020. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 36(3):517–554.
Tuncay, H. O. (2020). App attrition in computer-assisted language learning: Focus on duolingo. Master’s thesis, McGill University (Canada).
Valença, G., Silva, J. V., Rocha, B., e Cortiz, D. (2024). Children’s rights not deceptive patterns by design: a requirements perspective. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 1–11.
Zhou, X., Jin, Y., Zhang, H., Li, S., e Huang, X. (2016). A map of threats to validity of systematic literature reviews in software engineering. In 2016 23rd Asia-Pacifc Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), pages 153–160. IEEE.
Brenncke, M. (2024). Regulating dark patterns. Notre Dame J. Int’l Comp. L., 14:39.
Brignull, H. (2024). Deceptive patterns: Exposing the tricks tech companies use to control you. Testimonium Ltd.
Chamorro, L. S., Lallemand, C., e Gray, C. M. (2024). " my mother told me these things are always fake"-understanding teenagers’ experiences with manipulative designs. In 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS 2024, pages 1469–1482. ACM Press. 35Rights Foundation - Child Rights by Design - [link].
de Oliveira, L. C., Amaral, M. A., Bim, S. A., Valença, G., Almeida, L. D. A., Salgado, L. C. d. C., Gasparini, I., e da Silva, C. B. R. (2024). Grandihc-br 2025-2035-gc3: Plurality and decoloniality in hci. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 1–19.
Gray, C. M., Kou, Y., Battles, B., Hoggatt, J., e Toombs, A. L. (2018). The dark (patterns) side of ux design. In CHI. Pordue University.
Gupta, C., Campbell, M., Robards, B., e Fordyce, R. (2025). Playing the player: unfair digital gaming practices and their impact on australians. Monash University.
Helamo, A. (2023). Fighting the dark side: a scoping review of dark pattern mitigation. University of Oulu repository.
Jarovsky, L. (2022). Dark patterns in personal data collection: Definition, taxonomy and lawfulness. Taxonomy and Lawfulness (March 1, 2022).
Lacey, C. e Caudwell, C. (2019). Cuteness as a ‘dark pattern’in home robots. In 2019 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), pages 374–381. IEEE.
Livingstone, S., Third, A., e Lansdown, G. (2024). Children vs adults: Negotiating uncrc general comment no. 25 on childrens rights in the digital environment. In Handbook of media and communication governance, pages 414–428. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Loewen, S., Crowther, D., Isbell, D. R., Kim, K. M., Maloney, J., Miller, Z. F., e Rawal, H. (2019). Mobile-assisted language learning: A duolingo case study. ReCALL, 31(3):293–311.
Mejtoft, T., Hale, S., e Söderström, U. (2019). Design friction. In Proceedings of the 31st European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics, pages 41–44.
Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR (2024). Pesquisa sobre o uso da internet por crianças e adolescentes no brasil: Tic kids online brasil, ano 2024. Disponível em: [link]. Acessado em: 25 de agosto de 2025.
Potel-Saville, M. e Da Rocha, M. (2023). From dark patterns to fair patterns? usable taxonomy to contribute solving the issue with countermeasures. In Annual Privacy Forum, pages 145–165. Springer.
Sandhaus, H. (2023). Promoting bright patterns. In CHI. Cornell University.
Shortt, M., Tilak, S., Kuznetcova, I., Martens, B., e Akinkuolie, B. (2023). Gamification in mobile-assisted language learning: A systematic review of duolingo literature from public release of 2012 to early 2020. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 36(3):517–554.
Tuncay, H. O. (2020). App attrition in computer-assisted language learning: Focus on duolingo. Master’s thesis, McGill University (Canada).
Valença, G., Silva, J. V., Rocha, B., e Cortiz, D. (2024). Children’s rights not deceptive patterns by design: a requirements perspective. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 1–11.
Zhou, X., Jin, Y., Zhang, H., Li, S., e Huang, X. (2016). A map of threats to validity of systematic literature reviews in software engineering. In 2016 23rd Asia-Pacifc Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), pages 153–160. IEEE.
Publicado
08/09/2025
Como Citar
CASTRO, João Vítor; VALENÇA, George.
Teaching or Manipulating? On the Adoption of Bright and Deceptive Patterns by Duolingo. In: SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO SOBRE FATORES HUMANOS EM SISTEMAS COMPUTACIONAIS (IHC), 24. , 2025, Belo Horizonte/MG.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
.
p. 555-575.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/ihc.2025.10795.
