Welcome | Moin

I'm Thomas, a postdoctoral researcher at the Digital Media Lab of the University of Bremen, in collaboration with the Leibniz Science Campus Digital Public Health (DiPH). In my research, I focus on ethical design and online well-being, specifically how design can persuade our decision-making when engaging with digital technologies like social media or conversational user interfaces. In this context, I study so-called dark patterns – design tricks that steer or coerce a person's choices against their best interest with potential harmful outcomes. For educative purposes, I'm keeping a list with examples in the form of a dark pattern cheatsheet. Further, with my amazing friends and colleagues Colin M. Gray, Cristiana Santos, and Nataliia Bielova, we have synthesised over 200 dark patterns into a dark pattern ontology (link to our paper).

If you're interested in my work, feel free have a look at my publications. There, you may also find other projects outside my main focus, where I was happy to collaborate with others on great ideas. Also, don't hesitate to reach out! I am always happy to answer questions or discuss possible collaborations!

PUBLICATIONS