First Layer: Claim Credibility

As professionals in the web industry, we often associate credibility with specific pages or content on a website that talk about the history of a company, privacy policies, awards/certifications, testimonials, and other self-promoting words. Statements like “Quality widget manufacturer since 1701” or “Privacy Policy” pages were the standard go-to techniques to help increase credibility and distinguish the company from others. These became commonplace because that’s what users said they wanted, and for some time, they worked.

However, these techniques became diluted and are now expected on a website as a standard. They are still very important to establish credibility, but they don’t serve as unique differentiators any more. I refer to these techniques as the first layer of my Credibility Cake(™).

Second Layer: Visual Appeal

The second layer of establishing credibility is the visual design. Almost half of all consumers assess credibility based on the visual appeal of the design. The interesting thing is that there is a mismatch between what users think is important to them versus what their actual behavior is when browsing a website. Users claim that the first layer information was most important to them (such as having a privacy policy page), but when actually asked to evaluate credibility, users used the site’s design and never bothered to even look at a privacy policy page (Consumer WebWatch, How Do People Evaluate a Web Site’s Credibility?). From our experience, it is not only important to have a visually appealing website, but to also make sure that design is consistent throughout the entire website. Often with third party applications, websites have varying designs and layouts due to different technical restrictions. These types of design inconsistencies due to technology choices can have a huge effect on website credibility, especially if these pages involve the transaction of personal information (such as request forms).

Third Layer: User Experience

This leads us to what I call the third layer of credibility, which is the overall user experience. After the first two layers are established, once a user begins interacting with a website, the experience ultimately defines credibility. If the site is an e-commerce website, and the shopping cart is clunky or slow, these are greater problems for credibility than something from the first layer such as not having a “Hacker Safe” logo on the site.

By considering these three layers, we can make sure we are covering any areas of the website that may be affecting the site’s credibility. The important thing to note is that it is all about the perceived credibility of the site. You could be the oldest, respected, trusted business in your industry, but if your site is lacking in any one of these areas online, it can be hard to compete with smaller, newer businesses with a stronger established sense of credibility and trust online.

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This Week’s Topic: Credibility

Credibility on the web is something that is challenging on different levels for small companies and large companies alike. Small companies need to build credibility and establish themselves on the web to gain user trust while large companies need to reinforce their well known brands online. Usability issues on websites can harm credibility for both causes. On the web, we need to really think about how user experiences affects how the user perceives the credibility of the website.

Terrible

Blatant advertisements, overwhelming homepage, fly out menus, and other strange violations of usability best practices make this site our first Terrible Tuesday. Although the brand itself is strong, the design of this website does not give the impression of something that is updated, secure, or reliable. A good place to start would be to fix the most basic usability issues, such as the three level fly out navigation menu.

Terrific

A simple homepage that looks clean, updated, and follows basic usability standards helps reinforce a simple flight booking process and user experience. Rather than overwhelming the user with too many choices, the site uses a task-based information architecture that helps guides users to the right place.

Check back on Friday for our post talking more about how to establish trust and credibility on your website, and also for something I like to call the Credibility Cake!(™).

In the mean time, let us know what you think about the Terrible and Terrific of the day!

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