Abstract
The user interface of interactive systems is the meeting point of people with interactive communication technology (ICT). As a human product it forms a part of culture that determines us, often without our full realisation.
The interface is constructed according to a set of values of the designer and other stakeholders in the production process. Their values and goals are implicitly encoded in the interface and the documentation but can be in conflict with the values of the user.
This means the interface directs the user interaction in a way that should follow the user's intentions, but is often more subject to the intent of the designer or simply by what the system allows for by itself. This is when both the intentional and unintentional manipulation with the user starts, because she is presented with inappropriate choices or even inappropriate goals.
The goal of this article is therefore to show how this manipulation works, in which regards it is unavoidable and how can we try to avoid it. Ideologies are a special means of manipulation.
Using rhetorics ideologies lead to building interfaces answering ideological goals. A mere scientific analysis is bound in a subject-object relation towards the interface, thus inhibiting us to get a proper reflection.
We are therefore going to look at the topic of this paper by using the context of post-modern philosophy.