Building trust in digital products
Trust matters the most in the tensest moments
Imagine I ask for your social security number. How do I convince you to give it to me? … HOW IS THAT TENSE?
Or imagine your bank just got hacked and your money stolen … how do they earn your trust again?
These are the types of tense, high-stakes moments I’ve designed for over three years at PayPal. Here’s the principles I think about when I need to build trust in my product experiences.
#1: People almost always assume the worst
In trust experiences, you need to answer the questions users actually care about upfront.
If you don’t, they fill in the gaps. And usually assume the worst.
Even small pieces of content, like “We keep your information private,” can trigger questions: Private from who? For how long? Can I delete it? People pause, reread, and double-check … all because they’re protecting themselves online before say, giving their info. More power to them!
Moderated research makes it easy to spot these moments. The questions users ask usually fall into three categories:
What is happening right now?
Why is this being asked?
What does this mean for me?
Content plays a critical role here. Effective transparency isn’t about saying everything. It's a balancing act. Too much detail can increase anxiety; too little leaves users filling in gaps on their own.
#2: If you love something, set it free
Control matters. Products that hide exits, force choices, or use deceptive patterns show users they’re being cornered, and nothing erodes trust faster.
Control isn’t about exposing every option at once. You have to fully understand the end-to-end experience to prioritize the decisions that matter in context for that particular user. Too many choices create uncertainty.
Research is how you figure out what that end to end experience is, so you can find out where control actually matters.
#3: People trust what they recognize
When experiences involve personal or financial information, users actively look for reassurance.
Some signals are explicit, like language about protection, verification, or security. Others are implicit and register without thinking: familiar layouts, predictable flows, patterns they’ve learned to trust. People are more comfortable in environments they recognize; the same goes for products.
Research helps identify which cues people rely on and when they expect to see them. When products ignore those expectations, by breaking familiar patterns or signaling security inconsistently, trust drops quickly.
Research fits in by being the balancing function
Balance matters — you can’t overindex on any three of transparency, control, or familiarity. Too much of any one can create confusion and affect biz metrics.
UX research maps the end-to-end experience to reveal where users need the most information, control, and familiarity. Design and content can then deliver the right signals, in the right place, at the right time from our mapping of the user.
When it all works right, people move forward confidently because the product answers their questions, respects their choices, and feels predictable enough that they know what to expect. That's what builds trust!
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