Building trust online is no easy thing to do.
Website designers work closely with brands every day to build meaningful experiences and customer journeys for their target audience online.
An integral part of creating exceptional experiences is the many interactions and touchpoints a brand has with its customers- this helps UX/UI designers build trust.
In today’s digital marketing world, the word ‘trust’ is the strongest currency in this ever-growing market and is key to delivering a successful product or service online. Our generation of consumers places great emphasis on the transparency, authenticity, and honesty of a brand.
To make customer experiences less terrifying online, we design websites for trust.
Looking for ways to design for trust? Here are AdVisible’s top 7 UX tips that can help your brand secure customer loyalty for the long term.
Appearance & imagery is key
Everyone judges a book by its cover. So why not use stunning visuals to your advantage? The visuals and colours you choose, tone of voice, and language you use can impact how customers perceive your brand. When it comes to designing for trust and earning your target audience’s respect, you need to convey an image that your business is professional, reliable, and the ‘go-to’ brand for your product or services.
To do this, you need to include high-quality and appropriate imagery that showcases your business, whether that be your products or services, in the most effective manner. Your audience isn’t going to feel confident if the images of your business, and visual graphics are of low quality.
Internet specialists can help you optimise your branding imagery to ensure that search engine crawlers find it when people are actively searching for your services or products.
Your website planning, design or redesign will have the best chance of success if you consider the aforementioned design elements.
Ensure that your website is user-friendly
Do you know what turns prospects into converting customers? A user-friendly design! No one likes spending time searching for information about your products and services on a website.
A well-designed website will literally ‘push’ them in the right direction.
When designing your new website, you should always keep your audience and customers at the forefront of your mind. Effortless website navigation will encourage users to engage and interact, which can lead to the success of your website. The more user-friendly your website, the more people will want to return to it.
Additionally, if your users bounce off your website without engaging with anything on it, Google will recognise and flag this issue. As a result, it could cause your organic rankings to drop.
Consider implementing the following vital user-friendly elements:
- Home page with straightforward site navigation
- Site search option
- Form entry
- An aesthetically pleasing design
Show consistency in everything that you do
Here’s another essential web designer tip! Brands with inconsistent messaging lose customers!
Your consumers want to enjoy online experiences which live up to their expectations. Branding consistency is crucial to building your company’s reputation, as it can help your consumers trust that your brand can continue to meet expectations and stay true to the original message of your business.
Make a plan for your content and stick to it. Make sure everything you do, from your website and social media presence to community interactions, is consistent. By creating a UX that customers have come to expect from your business, you are sure to build trust and more robust connections with your target audience.
Your site might be regarded as hacked if you use marketing materials that are far from what your company usually promotes. Doing so may cause consumers to believe someone has hacked your site, which might damage business significantly.
Here are some tips for maintaining brand consistency:
- Use the same tone across all forms of content.
- Choose a colour scheme and stick with it.
- Use the same company logos and brand identity across different apps and platforms.
- Create congruency between your brand’s website and landing pages/marketing content.
- Match third-party elements to your native brand.
- Keep messages clear, innovative, and straightforward.
Show off people behind the brand
A crucial element that today’s customers dislike the most is a website that sets out purely to profit from its customers.
While profitability is an essential aspect of improving ROI, your customers don’t want to feel that your company only cares about making money off them.
To prevent your customers from feeling like an after-thought, a great way to build trust is to let the people behind the company shine!
Your company’s products or services shouldn’t outshine the brains behind the business. Customers will feel more connected with your brand if you give them a chance to learn about your business from the inside out. This way, they can find reasons to feel good about why they support your brand.
Try emphasising the people at your company with a down-to-earth ‘About Us’ page with staff biographies and videos featuring actual staff members. Instead of stock images, use images of your existing team members.
Doing so will build trust between your company and customers and develop your company story and core values through engaging yet authentic marketing. The more honest you are, the more likely your next customers will develop genuine relationships with your brand.
Be completely transparent
Good UX design lets your customers know exactly what they can expect from your website and, therefore, your business.
Your new website should demonstrate complete transparency about your team, activity on the site, and your company’s motives and values. Transparent language and intentions can significantly build trust.
When designing your site, don’t make it difficult for end-users to find helpful information related to your brand, as they have short attention spans to look for what they need.
Have an e-commerce site? Your product descriptions and content need to provide ample information about your products. Are your products cruelty-free? Put the cruelty-free badge with your product description!
Your customers will always insist on gathering knowledge before they decide to support your brand. Otherwise, they can quickly go to competitors if their website provides a better experience.
Rely on the power of User Testimonials & Social Media
Building customer trust through design can also include utilising third-party testimonials to your advantage. Whether it’s adding customer/business testimonials, quotes, video recordings, user ratings or something else entirely, your central focus is to have other people vouching for your service to build immediate trust.
Try emphasising trust with the following optimisation strategies:
Reviews & awards – Using award seals or ‘reviewed by’ language can be very persuasive in building trust. Most customers will most likely purchase a service or product if a third party verifies your company.
Marquee clients – Using client logos (with permission) on your landing and about us page can create a powerful visual proof of your business’s legitimacy. If your company has worked with larger corporation giants, then of course, your business can handle smaller businesses.
Media Mentions – Media mentions are fantastic in drumming brand promotions into your customers’ consciousness. Media mentions confer a sense of renown and solidity to your website.
Social media – We’re talking Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Twitter! Social media sites are a great venue to promote products and discuss them with potential clients. Slap your socials to the bottom of your website. This can connect with your customers and show your responsiveness to their needs.
Don’t forget to ‘user research’!
A user research study is a methodical analysis of target users — including their needs and pain points — so UX designers can make the best website design possible based on their findings.
Getting to know your users before the initial design process might seem overly obvious. However, this step is crucial. It allows your business to discover exactly what your users are looking for, any pain points and who they are as people.
We suggest the following:
- Choose methods that suit your research’s purpose.
- Use analytics to yield the most precise information.
From there, interpret your findings from all that data. You can apply user research anytime during the design process. Most researchers begin with qualitative measures to discover a target audience’s needs and motivations. They then will test their results using quantitative measures.
Does your business require a custom-made website that is tailored to your business initiatives? A design that’s guaranteed to turn prospects into long-term customers? Our web design experts at AdVisible are true pros when it comes to designing for trust. Explore our case studies and contact us today to get started.
