The Office Observes Cookie Banner Reflex
A cookie banner appeared. It was dismissed in under two seconds. The choices it offered have not been reviewed. The preferences have been set.
The banner appeared at the top of the page.
It contained, in descending order of visual prominence: a headline about cookies, a paragraph explaining the types, a link to a privacy policy, three buttons, and a small text link labeled "Manage preferences."
The accept all button was clicked in 1.7 seconds.
The Observation
The cookie banner is a consent mechanism. It is designed to give the user control over their data preferences. To exercise this control, the user must read the options and select among them.
The time required to read the options and select among them: approximately forty-five seconds. The time the average user spends on the banner: approximately two seconds. The two-second interaction does not include reading.
The two-second interaction consists of: loading the page, noting the banner's presence as an obstacle between the current position and the desired content, locating the button that will remove the obstacle, clicking it.
The Button Location
Accept all is usually: on the right, or at the bottom, or in a contrasting color. The user's eye has been trained to find it without reading surrounding text. The training occurred through repetition: the user has encountered many banners and has found the accept button in each one by developing a pattern recognition that bypasses reading.
This is efficient. It is also a complete inversion of the banner's purpose.
The Preferences
The user's cookie preferences, across hundreds of sites visited, are: whatever the accept all button chooses. The user has never opened the preferences panel except once, when the accept all button was not immediately visible, and a different button was clicked that turned out to say "Reject all," and then the page was reloaded and the accept all button was found.
The preferences panel contains many options. The options control meaningful aspects of data usage. They have been set by the accept all button.
The banner is now gone. The page is accessible. The preferences are set.