Abstract
With rapid digitalization, trust has become a critical issue in designing and maintaining e-commerce platforms – without trust, no transaction takes place. Companies that design for trust have a strategic advantage over competitors. Although trust is a crucial factor in e-commerce, designing a trustworthy website can be challenging for companies that make most or part of their profits online. The study builds on prior research to propose a comprehensive and up-do-date checklist. Trust components are divided into three dimensions of website design; their impact on users’ trust perceptions is studied in an online experiment with two websites. The results present demonstrable evidence that website design has a powerful impact on users’ trust perceptions. Professional design, primarily visual aspects, is responsible for creating a positive user first impression. Furthermore, additional trust is built through different dimensions of website design, increasing the likeliness of buying from the site.
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Acknowledgements
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the NGI_TRUST grant agreement no. 825618.
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Appendix: The Design Checklist
Appendix: The Design Checklist
Dimensions | Explanations | Trust-inducing design components |
|---|---|---|
Visual design | Defines the graphical design aspect and the structural organization of displayed information on the website | ✓ Professional design ✓ Color scheme to suit the product/service ✓ Nice and legible fonts ✓ High-quality (and authentic) images and visuals ✓ Good on-site search ✓ Easy-to-use navigation ✓ Clear anchor text and microcopy ✓ No technical problems (broken links, missing pictures or pages) |
Content design | Refers to the informational components that can be included in the website, be they textual, graphical, etc. | ✓ Brand-promoting information (logo, slogan) ✓ Company information (“About” page, facts & figures) ✓ Contact information ✓ Physical address ✓ Useful (expert-level) content ✓ Good grammar, minimized jargon ✓ External links (sources) ✓ Up-to-date blog/news page ✓ Clients (client logos) ✓ Client case studies ✓ Product information ✓ Price information ✓ Order information (transaction reports) ✓ Clear policies (privacy, return) ✓ Guarantees and warranties ✓ Helpful FAQs ✓ Trust seals ✓ Awards |
Social-cue design | Relates to embedding social and interpersonal cues, such as social proof, social presence and face-to-face interaction, into the website via different (communication) media | ✓ Staff photos and bios ✓ Easy access to customer service (e.g., contact form) ✓ Instant messaging/chat option ✓ Social presence (social media) ✓ Testimonials ✓ Reviews ✓ Reviews from influencers and notable customers ✓ Professional product reviews (from review sites, bloggers, customers) ✓ Press articles (media logos) |
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Fimberg, K., Sousa, S. (2020). The Impact of Website Design on Users’ Trust Perceptions. In: Markopoulos, E., Goonetilleke, R., Ho, A., Luximon, Y. (eds) Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1218. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51626-0_34
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