The results of a survey conducted by Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab (How do People Evaluate a Website's Credibility?) showed that consumers seemed to make their credibility-based decisions about the people or organisation behind the website based upon the site's overall visual appeal.
When consumers encounter a website having a professional design similar to that used in highly respected sites, they usually associate the credibility of the site with highly respected websites. Read the full report Stanford Web Credibility Report in Adobe reader or right click and "save target as" to read later.
Build Instant Credibility
A website owner can build almost instant credibility by choosing to pattern the design, layout, colours, and fonts after those websites with high credibility on the internet. So your design should:
Have instant credibility
Be immediately labelled as a professional website
Be visually pleasant to view
Be Easy to navigate
Have an obvious and clear focus
Have no negatives
What makes a Good Website?
A good web site will reflect well on your business and will be a valuable resource to your customers. It gets right to the point. You can tell what it's about, and why you should read on, in the first screen. Good web sites:
- know their audience's demographics, in both socioeconomics and technology
- include the organization's name on every page
- use a consistent design throughout
- locate navigation aids at the top of each page
- offer quality content
- date and sign each page
- use proper spelling and grammar
- include a feedback mechanism
- load quickly
- put the "meat" of their pages in the first one or two screens
- use special effects only if they add value
- have working links
- build user loyalty
Follow these guidelines and you can make your site one that is recommended, bookmarked, visited and revisited.
