Website credibility is a subject close to our hearts. Over the years, we’ve seen how websites with credibility rise to the top while sloppy websites get sunk.
So what is credibility really? How can you get more of it if you don’t have it?
BJ Fogg of Stanford University shares in these slides his findings on what makes web credibility.
According to the Web Credibility Project conducted by Stanford University, “nearly half of all consumers (or 46.1%) in the study assessed the credibility of sites based in part on the appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size and color schemes.”
The study concludes that people do judge your website by how it looks. If it doesn’t look credible or it doesn’t look like what they expect it to be, they go elsewhere. You don’t get a second chance. It’s actually not very different from how we judge cars and politicians.
Fogg explains, “Those who can design for credibility have a strategic advantage.”