Hostile Design
Lighting, benches and paths can be designed to force or prevent a given behavior.
This episode of 99pi is a great overview of hostile design. It’s incredible how you can design a bench on which it’s impossible to sleep or rest for more than five minutes. Check out also the videos with people enacting weird poses to show the hostility in the design of these objects.
What about software? What about that newsletter that asks you to login when you want to unsubscribe? And that newsletter that has ten different options and doesn’t offer a select/unselect all when you want to change your subscription? And that service that doesn’t let you cancel the subscription with a simple click so that the only way is to click “contact us”?
You can design your products in shady ways and people may even fall into the trap. But when they realize your intention they won’t probably recommend your product to their friends, and they may even bad-mouth your design in a famous podcast :)