- How do you build a website that is going to create trust
between you and your potential customers?
In this video I'm going to share with you
the techniques that designers use to create trust
between you and your customer.
(gentle music)
A strategy that you should consider for your website
and building trust with your customers
is starting with value.
So the first technique that I use to build value
when a customer lands on a site
is by having some sort of freebie
or asset that gives the user value
right from the beginning of that relationship.
Giving them a sign up to a free course or a free webinar,
that kind of engages them
and gives them the information that they need to know
about what you offer.
A second strategy that small businesses want to think about
when creating trust is making sure that
you are prioritizing the design
and cognitive load for the user,
and cognitive load essentially means
not overwhelming the user
when they're coming to your site.
If you have a broken or sloppy interface,
it immediately communicates a disregard for your customer.
As a small business, you need to show up for your customer
and a good way to indicate this is through the interactions
that your customer has through your website,
whether that's when it's onboarding,
or when it's using your product,
or signing up for your service,
buying a product or booking something,
you wanna make sure that every step of the way
they know that you are delivering on your promise
and that they feel confident in your services,
and can trust that you will deliver.
(gentle upbeat music)
Another strategy that small business owners can think about
for creating trust is using social proof and testimonials.
We have a natural social bias to trust people
that are more similar to us.
For example, if you are a small skincare brand
and you want your user to be able to find
what product is right for them,
they could filter by skin type,
and they could filter by maybe acne as a concern,
or sensitive skin.
So really enabling them to find what is actually
directly relevant to them.
Some design elements or UI elements really to consider
when you're designing this testimonial
is the name, the picture of the person,
the rating that they give,
and how you're surfacing that information,
and then how are you thinking about communicating,
and how are you allowing the customers
to actually communicate with each other?
Another strategy to consider is
being very transparent with your customer.
One way you can do this is by not using dark patterns,
which are actually quite common with design.
Dark patterns are essentially tricking the user
into an unintended action,
like maybe throwing something into that shopping cart
that they didn't actually want to buy.
Dark patterns are not good
for your business in the long run.
Although they might help you get
what you wanted in that moment,
the user will remember how
using your website made them feel.
It's important to make sure that the user feels in control
when they're using your website.
Another strategy to consider is that functionality
is the most important and most fundamental thing
that your website can have.
Instead of trying to make something really fancy
or making something with a lot of images,
think about the most important things
that your customer needs to see on that page.
If you have a lot of high quality images on your site,
it's going to take longer to load,
and that might mean that the customer is sitting on
the other end of that website waiting for a while,
or thinking that the website is broken.
Just really focus on simplicity,
and maybe figure out what tools will help you
make that experience even easier for you to optimize.
If I had one final message that I could leave with you
it would be to get to know your customers.
Being able to design for them will create trust,
and trust will mean they're invested in your business
and this will lead to retention over time,
which means that new customers
will inevitably come to your site and enjoy your experience.
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