Dark patterns & consumer protection
Pre-checked boxes, drip pricing, confirmshaming, obstructed cancellation and negative-option subscriptions, evaluated against FTC guidance, ROSCA and state auto-renewal laws.
Expert witness · User experience & interface design
What did the interface actually ask the user to do?
I help counsel answer that question with evidence. Twenty-five years designing consumer and enterprise products at Apple, LinkedIn, Looker, NerdWallet and more than forty startups, applied to disputes over consent, disclosure, usability and design infringement.
Exhibit 14 · Checkout, step 3 of 3
Mobile · captured as served
Annual plan$0.00 today
ShippingFree
✓Keep me enrolled in Premium Plus ($14.99/mo after trial)
Due today$0.00
Start free trial
Renews automatically. Cancel by calling during business hours. See terms.
- 1Recurring charge pre-selected; price not repeated near the action button.
- 2Button label names the trial, not the paid enrollment.
- 3Renewal and cancellation terms set at 9px and 40% contrast, below the fold.
Areas of opinion
Where design decisions become legal questions
Each area below draws on work I have done as a practitioner, not only as a reviewer. I can tell the court how teams build these flows, what the industry knew at the time, and what a reasonable alternative would have looked like.
Disclosure, terms & online contract formation
Sign-in-wrap and clickwrap presentation, placement and visual weight of notices, and whether the design gave users a real opportunity to review terms.
Design patents, trade dress & UI copying
Comparative analysis of screens, icons and flows. Separating conventions every product shares from distinctive choices, with design-history context from the App Store era forward.
Software delivery & usability disputes
Enterprise implementations, agency and vendor engagements, and products that failed in use. Assessment of research practice, specifications, handoff and what competent delivery requires.
Digital accessibility
Website and app accessibility claims measured against WCAG 2.x, with task-based evaluation of the barriers a specific plaintiff would have encountered.
Financial & data-privacy interfaces
Rate and product comparison displays, cookie and tracking consent, and permission prompts, informed by product work in personal finance, data analytics and telecom.
Qualifications
Practitioner first
I have spent a career on the other side of these screens, making the trade-offs between conversion, clarity and compliance that later end up in discovery.
I am a systems designer and design lead with roughly 25 years in product and UX design, from consumer marketplaces to enterprise operations tools. I currently lead UX for internal agent and enterprise tooling at a national telecom provider and run an independent studio, AE Design Studio. I hold a BFA from CalArts.
That experience lets me explain to a judge or jury how product teams actually decide what goes on a screen, and what alternatives were available at the time.
Full CV, publications, fee schedule and Rule 26 disclosures available on request.
- MarketplaceAppleiTunes App Store
- ConsumerLinkedInConsumer social & professional network
- EnterpriseLookerBusiness intelligence & data analytics
- FintechNerdWalletPersonal finance comparison
- InfrastructureEquinixData center & interconnection
- TelecomViasatSatellite communications
- TelecomCharter CommunicationsUX Design Lead, agent & enterprise tools
- Venture40+ startupsFounding and early-stage design
Method
Opinions built to survive Daubert
Every opinion rests on a documented, repeatable method that another qualified expert could follow and test.
Reconstruction as served
Rebuilding the interface the user actually saw on the relevant date, device and screen size, from production files, design archives, version history and web archives.
Heuristic & standards review
Structured evaluation against published usability heuristics, platform guidelines, WCAG and regulatory guidance, with each finding tied to a criterion.
Comparative analysis
Side-by-side review against competitors and industry practice of the period, to show what was customary and what reasonable alternatives existed.
Design-record review
Reading specs, tickets, A/B test results and design files to show what the team intended and what it measured.
User testing
Where the case warrants it, task-based studies with representative participants to test whether users noticed and understood a disclosure.
Annotated exhibits
Clear, accurate demonstratives that let a judge or jury see the issue on the screen, as in the example above.
Retaining me
How an engagement runs
Engagements may start as consulting-only and convert to testifying. I take matters for plaintiffs and defendants.
Conflict check
Parties, products and counsel cleared before any substantive discussion.
Scoping call
The questions counsel needs answered and the materials available.
Analysis
Reconstruction, review and any testing, documented as I go.
Report
Opening or rebuttal report with annotated exhibits.
Testimony
Deposition, hearing or trial, with preparation alongside counsel.
Consulting expert
Testifying expert
Rebuttal reports
Declarations
Arbitration & mediation
Regulatory inquiries
Discuss a matter
Please share only what a conflict check needs: parties, court or forum, and the type of question. Do not send privileged or confidential materials before an engagement is in place.
- Studio
- aedesign-studio.com
- linkedin.com/in/ashcunningham
- Location
- Northern California · available for remote work and travel