As designers, we can plan ahead and avoid some obvious pitfalls. We can take the power of what we’re building seriously and build something together that is worthy of trust.

Trust is the foundation of any lasting relationship and it can only be earned through respect: being fast when speed matters, being intentional in important moments, including audiences meaningfully in research, and creating honest structures for feedback.

To help people feel seen, respected, autonomous, and cared for, I like to consider:

Is it reliable? There are conscious and unconscious hints that an experience is going to meet someone’s expectations. For instance, when I design for ecommerce experiences I make sure to use expected ecommerce conventions, like consistent interfaces, minimal or purposeful animation, and creating paths to complete tasks uninterrupted to show that I’m building something people can depend on (especially when entering payment information).
Is it designed for the real world? It’s important to make sure you’re designing for the context and mental model of your audience. In a world of options, consider the task someone needs to complete, what else may be competing for their attention, and the trust, time, or energy that they need to be successful. For example, knowing how and when a higher education website fits into a prospective student’s college selection process and what they need to find can make all the difference in whether or not it convinces them to take the next step.
Is it actually too fast?Being slower and more intentional with your audience at key decision points shows people you have their interests in mind. In cases where an experience is asking someone to make a big decision or accept the finer details, we can consider how to add thoughtful friction to the experience as a way of respecting someone’s needs. When I’ve designed detailed application flows for government workers who need buy-in from their team, I design ways for people to pause, check, and/or come back to the task to make people feel considered and comfortable before taking a major step. Your design can show you aren’t reckless or pushy with the big decisions.
Is it human? We can design experiences that feel more human, but in some cases it’s important to show that the experience involves a real human who can answer questions. For example, well-presented features and use cases and a chatbot can only get someone so far when they’re making a large software purchase. I design multiple pathways for people to get their questions answered or get on the right track. By talking to customers, I have also found it’s important to design into the flow how someone can talk with a real person to make sure their needs will be met before completing the process.
Is it tested? Symptoms can sometimes be more visible than their causes. It’s important to examine performance from a visitor’s experience. Using testing or other tools in your toolkit may pinpoint what’s eroding trust—and it might not be what you expect! Through usability testing I’ve found signup forms that were never even noticed, main navigation labels that were interpreted outside my intent, and places for pathways that increased repeat engagement in my designed experiences. Testing gave me the opportunity to reframe what I was seeing and make meaningful improvements to findability and deeper engagement
Is it scannable?There’s no shortage of digital content, but our time does have limits. With shrinking attention spans and an increase in expectations on our time, performant content could mean writing proportionally to the task. Concise writing for the quick tasks and diving deep where more thought or convincing is appropriate. Making sure your longform content is scannable with subheadings can help people determine if they’re in the right place and if it’s worth making the time investment to engage with your content.
Is it inclusive? Design doesn’t happen in a vacuum. References and patterns all have deep histories. Design that affects people’s lives should include those people’s perspectives, feedback, and knowledge in the process. For instance, by designing a respectful research and testing experience and earnestly getting to know my audience, I’ve learned about technology and systemic barriers that shaped my approach to design. When designing for healthcare workers in the field, quick access to text-based information, minimal loading flourishes made the difference between a tool being useful and trusted or not.
Is it portable? Because of the proliferation of web-enabled LLMs, your audience may find you outside the context of your website, app, or area of control. The way we consider our content and build authority can make a difference in whether or not content is retrieved, understood, or contextually rewritten in a way that is in line with your brand or goals. Being seen and understood with a consistent message may mean we write in a distinctive voice and emphasize differentiators as answers to real questions.
Is it translating? Part of performance and building trust is knowing our audience. There are a lot of ways we can lose meaning in translation. To design more clear content experiences, I write without idioms when I know my content is being translated into multiple languages. When we design across locales, cultures, and languages, it’s crucial that we research how these factors impact user behavior and validate our design and content to make sure it’s culturally relevant and translates appropriately to our audiences.

These (and many more) questions all help to create a well-considered, portable, inclusive and respectful experience for establishing trust.

What other questions help us build more respectful experiences?

Building trust through design: A respectful UX primer