September Professionalism Blog-Trustworthiness

SO what do trustworthiness and web design have in common? They have quite a lot in common actually and I didn’t realize just how important trust was until I did some research on the matter; here is what I came up with..

Experience has taught many internet users to be skeptical of everything on the web. We’ve all been burned at some point by an untrustworthy website, so you have to prove to each and every user that you are worthy of their trust. You have to prove that the form users must fill out will not increase the spam in their inbox, or that the button you wish them to press will not bring them to an advertising site with endless pop ups and pop unders. SO basically if someone goes to the site that you painstakingly developed and designed; they are not going to trust that you won’t spam them unless your design is professional and clean. This is of course important because what is the goal of making a website? For people to SEE it and GO BACK to it so why would you want to screw that up?

Another big thing are typos.. SERIOUSLY?? I can’t believe HOW many people don’t take the time to see if their site is free of typos. It’s not that hard..  Typos on your website are red flags for the user. If you aren’t professional enough to check the spelling in your content, you aren’t professional enough to be trusted with user information or participation.

Another way to assure people of trustworthiness is by displaying major awards or certifications and provide links to the organizations that awarded them. This is pretty obvious because if someone has to choose between two websites to trust; they are most likely going to stay with the one that has other people who trust them as well. Kind of a no-brainer.

One last trustworthiness factor that I found interestingly relevant was to tell the user what will happen if they click on something.  You want the user to press a button, or to fill out a form. BUT,  to get users to trust your site, you need to make it more transparent. If you want a user to click a button, tell them what will happen if they do click a button. Will they be taken to a form? Will they find themselves in limbo? If you want the user to fill out a form, tell them why and what will happen if they do. By making the actions on your site more transparent, you become more trustworthy.

These are just a few examples of trustworthiness in Web Design and I have found them useful in my own work and I hope you will too. Please enjoy the funny images I found on trustworthiness and remember to be trustworthy not only in web design; but in all aspects of life because it will make you a better business person and human in the long run. Can’t go wrong with trust!