These two health websites were used in a study of the effects of good design on the experience of users. Which one would you chose? Almost everyone in the study chose the second one, citing navigational confusion, cartoon-ish graphics, and other issues as reasons to not trust the source. However, only 6% of all concerns were related to content. That says that users will load your page and decide if they want to trust your company, product, or service before they actually find a reason to mistrust you in your content. You may be losing more customers by having a lousy website than if you didn't have one at all.
So what makes a good website?
The Long Answer: Lots of factors go into making users come back to quality sites (content, layout, style, etc.), and they then weave together to form the user’s experience (what he or she thought of your site). A user will only come back to a site if 1) It provided the content that the user needed in a easily understood format or better manner than any other site, 2) It provided higher quality content than any other site, or 3) If it is simply the most convenient place to find the content they want.
Google can be used as an example for all three. Not only do they provide the search results in the order that it thinks they will be most useful to you, it also provides its own services to help users find the highest quality content. Try typing a formula or celebrity into the search box, and a graph or a list of movies will appear. Try to beat the convenience of that, Yahoo.
The Short Answer: Good design. Once you think you have it, do a quick survey to see if people will trust the layout and design, just to be sure. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Sillence, Elizabeth, Pam Briggs, Lesley Fishwick, and Peter Harris. Trust and Mistrust of Online Health Sites. Trust and Mistrust of Online Health Sites. United States Naval Academy, 29 Apr. 2004. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.
