Trust, the Secret Ingredient
Building trust means building a bridge that connects two sides, and it is a fundamental ingredient for life.
This is a powerful idea I have learned over the years working as a product designer. I have heard coworkers say things like, "everything our customers touch should create a sense of Trust."
In short, as human beings we share a similar brain system for survival situations, which is why we need to understand it (learn more about the limbic system). We know that when we are in danger, we can flee, attack, or freeze, and this is the same for most living beings on planet Earth. On the other hand, when we feel safe, we move forward as if there were no tomorrow, and that is wonderful, because it lets us learn to ride a bike, build buildings, or skydive.
In human relationships, we are constantly exchanging things, and for an exchange to happen, one ingredient is needed: trust. To explain what Trust is, I will give an example:
"Amanda went to the countryside, and while walking around, she saw a lake, and on that lake there was a bridge. Amanda glanced quickly at the bridge and, within milliseconds, imagined that she could cross it safely. The object that is meant to be trusted is the bridge.
At this first moment, she wanted to be on the other side of the lake, and since she had seen a bridge before, it was easy for her to recognize that this was a usable means to reach her goal. That helped build a little trust.
After a few seconds, Amanda looked more closely at the bridge and noticed that, although it was old, the wood seemed sturdy, and this built more trust. So when she put her first foot on the bridge and checked that everything was fine, she felt at ease and began crossing. The bridge was a familiar object for Amanda, and its elements were recognized and judged trustworthy to a degree enough for her to feel safe crossing it.
When she reached the other side and walked for a few moments, a young woman came up to her and offered her a guava. She smiled and accepted it, but after the woman left, she decided not to eat it. She thought it had all been too sudden and strange, nothing familiar.
The lack of information about the woman who offered the guava, the fact that Amanda did not know her or have any references, made her a little distrustful, and so the transaction was not completed (Amanda did not eat the guava the woman gave her)."
When it comes to transactions of financial value, this equation becomes exponentially harder. Through these examples, I hope I have made clear what Trust is and how hard it can be to build.
If we think about how to build Trust through design, we need to offer some basic elements, such as an interface, a task, or a communication process that feels familiar.
There are, of course, other elements essential to building Trust, such as a stable, functional, and efficient service, and the absence of critical incidents that could damage the company's brand. These are only generic examples that show that building Trust is hard, continuous work.
When I call trust a secret ingredient, I mean it is so obvious that many people do not see it. Trust is something we learn from the time we are newborns, when we start to trust our caregivers. Yet it is a factor that is largely neglected in many companies and digital products. It is very easy to remember a service or product we did not trust, or one that frustrated us.
That makes it clear there is a big opportunity to ask whether what we make will be used and perceived by people as trustworthy. It takes a lot of study and work, because trust involves human behavior. One way to reduce the chance of mistakes is to test what you are proposing and put it in front of other people for criticism.
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