Designing without dark patterns
guide for designers

6.11. Newsletter

Page reading time: 4 min  

→ The newsletter allows you to keep in touch and share information. To ensure that this sharing goes as smoothly as possible:

The user must agree to be added to a newsletter (GDPR).

Although it may seem simpler to add someone to a newsletter for various reasons:

  • interest in the subject;
  • ease of use.

It is the user who must subscribe to the newsletter.

Ability to unsubscribe from certain categories

The user must be able to choose to unsubscribe from all or some of the categories. This option allows the user to know which categories they are subscribed to.

Example

Unsubscription from a Newsletter

Users can find out which groups they are subscribed to. And choose to unsubscribe from some or all of them.
This page appears after clicking on the 'Unsubscribe' button, on Designers éthiques newsletters.

Newsletter unsubscribe window. Title ‘Do you really want to unsubscribe?’ Description ‘Please select the group(s) you wish to unsubscribe from. Click on the link at the bottom to unsubscribe from all mailing groups’ followed by a list of checkboxes with the mailing lists you're subscribed to. And 2 buttons `Selected groups’ and ‘Unsubscribe from all groups’.

Limiting trackers

What is email tracking?

Tracking follows the user receiving the email through his or her :

  • actions (opening, clicking, reading);
  • reactions;
  • itinerary.

It is implemented using a tracker (computer command) on:

  • buttons (CTA);
  • redirect links.

The aim is to obtain individualised information on newsletter recipients.

How does it work?

  1. Each email in the database is associated with a unique identifier;
  2. Creation and sending of an HTML email with images, text and links to newsletter recipients;
  3. Creation of a unique address for each image. Link to recipient ID (example: http://www.site.com/images/logo.png?source=1 for recipient ID 1). The image is not included in the email. But there is a reference to the online image address;
  4. When the email is opened by a recipient, the tracker sends information to the database that the email has been opened. It indicates the date, time and IP address.


To protect users, most email programs do not open images by default when emails are opened. It's up to users to activate images according to the source of the email.

Personalised newsletters

Tracking can be used to create personalised newsletters.
To do this, a different email is sent to each recipient. It will adapt:

  • the name;
  • tone;
  • temporality;
  • content: by deleting certain information (depending on the information previously received).

Why tracking should be avoided

  • Lack of transparency. Users are unaware of the data collected by trackers.
  • Creation of user profiles. Tracking collects information on recipients for this purpose. This is particularly visible in the case of super-personalized newsletters (adapting to each user).
  • Capturing attention. Personalised newsletters play on recipients' attention. They focus on retaining the user's attention.

Best practices

If you must still use trackers in your newsletters:

  • keep them to a minimum;
  • avoid personalised newsletters.
6.10. Subscription
6.12 Advertising