Establishing trust and credibility

As much as humans enjoy the company of entertaining personalities who make people laugh and feel good, the most important factor of an emotional connection is trust. Without trust the laughter is fake and interaction not really enjoyable. In the first two points we looked at different ways of engaging with the user to trigger an emotional connection, but trust is the foundation on which these triggers can truly take root. Trust goes deeper than the aesthetics of a website, so how do you build trust?

Do the brand values and value proposition come through the content of the website? The tone is the way the content is presented, but it's the substance that will build trust. Is the website safe for online payments? Does the user feel that they can trust the website with confidential information? Copy and visuals to give the user sufficient information about security measures taken on the site can be supported by visuals of a security icon and well known financial institutions. Is the website often offline? This will also make the user feel that the website cannot be trusted. Testimonials and star ratings from real people give credibility that the content is indeed real and not skewed for marketing purposes. Travel websites such as TripAdvisor (https://www.tripadvisor.com/) and Booking.com (https://www.booking.com/) make use of this kind of trust building.