Automatic attention capture
Autoplay overrides a session limit
A fictional video service starts another clip when a user’s chosen twenty-minute limit is reached and hides the leave action behind a full-screen recommendation.
Individual HTML example · Forced action
Infinite catalogue without progress cues
A fictional marketplace continuously inserts new products and removes pagination, position and viewed-item markers while promotional prompts follow the shopper.
This is an original fictional comparison. It depicts no real company and is not a legal finding or safe harbour.
Infinite catalogue without progress cues
A fictional marketplace continuously inserts new products and removes pagination, position and viewed-item markers while promotional prompts follow the shopper.
More picks loaded for you. The list has no end, position or record of products already compared.. Continue browsing. Unconfirmed state: Continue browsing
20 products reviewed. The shopper can stop, save the set or load another defined group.. Save and stop. Saved state: Save and stop. Persisted account state, expanded: The saved state behind “Save and stop” remains consistent after refresh and across supported channels.
Why the first version can mislead: The additional dependency controls access to the pricing goal. The panel states: “The list has no end, position or record of products already compared.” Reviewers need to establish whether “Continue browsing” is necessary for the selected task or pressures the user into a separable action. A shopper can lose track of time, prior comparisons and where a considered choice occurred.
What a fairer design does: Provide meaningful batches, a visible position and a reliable way to pause, save or return to compared items.
Show annotated differences (2)
Potentially problematic version
- Unconfirmed state: Continue browsingIn “Infinite catalogue without progress cues”, this element shows how automatic attention capture can shape the decision.
Neutral alternative
- Persisted account state, expanded: The saved state behind “Save and stop” remains consistent after refresh and across supported channels.In “Infinite catalogue without progress cues”, this element keeps the clearer alternative visible at the same decision point.
Review questions (3)
- What functional need makes “Continue browsing” necessary for the shopping discovery feed goal, and can that need be met with less disclosure or commitment?
- Test the control across refresh, device and account states; is “Stopping or disabling continuation is absent, hidden or non-persistent” still observable after persistence is considered?
- Could the stated purpose make this dependency genuinely necessary under the boundary “ordinary pagination”, and what product evidence would demonstrate that necessity?
Complete pattern context
How this example relates to Automatic attention capture
Content continues automatically or lacks meaningful stopping cues, reducing deliberate control over time and attention. The label describes a recurring design mechanism; whether a particular implementation is harmful or unlawful depends on the complete journey, audience, evidence and rules within scope.
The full guide explains inclusion and exclusion criteria, harms, fair design principles, evidence questions and the relevant EU legal information layers. The example page isolates one scenario so it can be shared and discussed without reproducing the complete library on one page.
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Sources and provenance for this example
Evidence base
Sources
- Dark commercial patternsOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development · Secondary · checked 2026-09-14 · OECD Digital Economy Papers No. 336
- Unfair Commercial Practices DirectiveEuropean Parliament and Council of the European Union · Primary · checked 2026-08-09 · Directive 2005/29/EC; CELEX 02005L0029-20220528