Perceived Ease of Use
To handle perceived ease of use, one concept should be prioritized when it comes to designing your website: the aesthetic-usability effect. Also known as the Halo Effect, the concept suggests that when visitors find an interface to be visually pleasing, they perceive it to also be easier to use.
Similar to seeing a well-dressed businessperson and, subconsciously or consciously, assuming they’re more professional, we make snap judgments about the websites we visit.
Keep in mind that what we’re aiming for in the trust stage is the perception of usability. That doesn’t mean your website shouldn’t be usable (of course it should!), it means you need to make it immediately apparent.
The perception of usability creates a trustworthy first impression; consistent ease of use throughout the entire experience builds and maintains a trusting relationship. We’ll focus on overall usability in the next stage of the Model.
Quality of Information
Experts have laid out a few characteristics of information quality that we can apply to eCommerce website design. Information should be: valuable, relevant, up to date, complete, and in the right amount.
This information should be presented in a way that's easy to understand, consistent, concise, and accessible. [2]
It may not seem like we can quickly assess the quality of a webpage's information, but our perceptions are formed in seconds. Misspellings and mismatching tone require a little more focus to spot, but amount of information can be assessed instantly.
Based on past experience, we've formed instincts around these two ends of the content spectrum—too little content gives the perception that the company is hiding something and a wall of text makes visitors feel overwhelmed.
Communicating value in a concise and consistent tone will help your visitors get to know your brand and see the value in your products.
Perceived Risk
Perceived risk is one that's impacted by a few variables that we can't solve for. Visitors who are inexperienced with the web may not have the same capacity for trust that an avid user would. They're more likely to be uncertain, which is the enemy of trust. Also, users who have had a bad experience (especially recently) may be more careful and unwilling to immediately set aside any perception of risk.
“When making decisions involving risk, such as an online purchase from a website, consumers tend to rely more on intuition than on deliberation.”
- Derrick Neufeld and Mahdi Roghanizad in Harvard Business Review, 2018
With that said, a professional website with original imagery and content will ensure that the majority of your audience starts their visit on a foundation of trust.
Incorporating the opinions of others (especially respected sources) also goes a long way toward starting a relationship on the right foot. If you’re unable to showcase press reviews, testimonials, or reviews, including contact information and images of your physical locations will show that you’re a real business that exists offline too.
Instilling Trust in Your Visitors
Opinions about your website are formed in an instant. Trust is the foundational emotion when it comes to making a purchase, and getting it right doesn’t need to be difficult. Thankfully, trust has been at the center of consumer research for decades. We have seemingly endless research on the topic and technology continues to improve the depth of this collective knowledge.
Like the other four elements in the Masterpiece Model, having honesty at the core of your company makes it easier to communicate that you’re trustworthy. The best websites don’t hide who the brand really is—they amplify it.
Overall, the element of trust is constructed with three factors: design, content, and social cues from others.
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