Towards Trustworthy Augmented Reality in The Metaverse Era: Probing Manipulative Designs in Virtual-Physical Commercial Platforms

Esmée Henrieke Anne de Haas, Yiming Huang, Carlos Bermejo, Zijun Lin, Pan Hui, Lik-Hang Lee

Abstract: E-commerce has become an important activity where new advances in technology shape the shopper experience. At the same time, the metaverse is seen as the next milestone to revolutionize the e-commerce experience, where immersion, realism, and ubiquity are its main features. However, under such circumstances, manipulative designs to ‘trick’ users toward intended choices or outcomes can become more effective. This paper sheds light on the design space of manipulative techniques in e-commerce applications for the meta-verse, reinforcing our understanding of interface design guidelines and counteracting malicious practices.