cityofsound: How can the design of digital surfaces help engender trust?:
Jeff summoned up the recent research around web users 'judging' sites within 1/20th of a second, which has swept through the interaction design community. This snap judgement illustrates how we are drawn towards particular sites, even at a blink. But I reckon equating that judgement with trust is a step too far. My question suggested that, in the physical world, people are often drawn into deeper relationships with objects that indicate patterns of usage, signs of graceful aging. People generally don't follow the road not taken, but the well-trodden path. Stone steps bowed through human traffic or a banister polished by the accumulation of thousands of hands draws us in somehow, begins to embark upon a relationship which might engender trust. Typically, Brian Eno said something about this:
"We are convinced by things that show an internal complexity, that show the traces of an interesting evolution. Those signs tell us that we might be rewarded if we accord it our trust. An important aspect of design is the degree to which the object involves you in its own completion. Some work invites you into itself by not offering a finished, glossy, one-reading-only surface. This is what makes old buildings interesting to me. I think that humans have a taste for things that show that they have been through a process of evolution, but which also show they are still part of one. They are not dead yet."
The judgements we make at the 1/20th second stage are actually about other things - does this site look professional, polished? We were drawn towards the site which 'looked good'; or balanced from a graphic design perspective. Which is relatively easy to achieve and reinforce, frankly. And indeed, the result of that may also be embarkation upon a relationship of trust. Yet I feel there's something missing in this surface layer.
