Trust: The Most Important Feature
How does trust factor into systems?
What is the implicit promise of a system?
Do things a certain way, and a certain outcome will be assured.
This applies to any organized process or workflow, but particularly shows up in software. For example, take today's average e-commerce experience.
Browse a web page on your computer or phone.
Click a link, fill in a form, hit a button, and wait a couple of days.
A box will show up on your doorstep with the item you ordered.
It's so commonplace today that we forget how truly miraculous this is. Years of engineering, investments, and user conditioning went into building this everyday interaction that we now take for granted.
Not to downplay the many financial and technical innovations behind this, but user trust is the ultimate enabler that delivered us to where we are today. Investments in time and technology wouldn't have advanced had the users not signaled their gradual comfort with and acceptance of doing things this way.
When Trust Breaks Down
If a system doesn't live up to this promise, what happens next?
If the user isn't obliged to use this particular system, the answer is pretty simple - they won't use it.
A consumer usually has choices. Maybe they'll pick a substitute that does similar things, but more reliably. Perhaps they decide to go no-frills and reduce their spending with a lower cost option. They could simply reduce their engagement, or might even choose to go without this entirely.
Whatever the case, major consumer brands with competition continue to invest heavily in refining already high-quality user experiences to avoid ending up in this position.
But what if there is no choice?
For most jobs, we don't have the luxury of opting out of using a system. The software world is filled with company-standard internal systems, business-to-business platforms, APIs, and custom applications, most of operate without meaningful competition.
For example, using an alternate HR platform to request vacation days isn't an option for most workers in large companies. No matter how clunky or confusing this experience is, if you want to get paid for PTO, you will be using this system.
Your users may not have alternatives. That doesn't mean they trust the systems you give them.
And the consequences for this deficit of trust present in ways that affect us all. Next time, we'll explore the role trust plays when there are seemingly no choices.
