Designing to Build Trust : The factors that matter by Ilana Westerman.
From the post:
More than ever in the digital domain, companies rely on design to communicate with their customers. Because the experience of visiting a company website is by nature remote—lacking any direct interaction with any tangible assets offered—the company’s digital presence often defines a user’s impressions of the company as a whole. In this context, how customers experience not only the website but also the way the site handles their personal information becomes key to shaping their overall impression of the brand.
In this article, we will dive into the nature of trusted online experiences, why they are important, design attributes that we know people trust, and how design creates trust and distrust. We’ll illustrate the issues around designing for trust with a sample prototype of a healthcare exchange design and user reactions to it.
Research to consider when building an interface for your topic map based application.