To regain their trust, we must empower our users. Expert opinions are a thing of the past; we favor user reviews from “people like us” whether we're planning a meal or prioritizing a newsfeed. But as our filter bubbles burst, consumers and citizens alike turn inward for the truth. By designing for empowerment, the smartest organizations meet them there.
In an age of cynicism, we can design for trust: our tactical choices in content and design can fuel empowerment. Examples from the FBI, Mailchimp, NIH, GOV.UK, and America's Test Kitchen demonstrate what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Focusing on voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users and rebuild our very sense of trust itself.
Presented by Margot Bloomstein, @mbloomstein, at An Event Apart Washington DC, #aeadc, on July 29, 2019.
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Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload. Bloomsbury, New York, 2010, p. 45
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Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload. Bloomsbury, New York, 2010, p. 47
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Do we get comfortable in our faith,
or confidently test our beliefs through education?
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63% of the general population finds it difficult
to differentiate between real and fake news.
Source: 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer
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Only 48% of Americans say they believe
climate change is mostly due to human
activity.
Source: Pew Research Center “The Politics of Climate”
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Only 40% of Americans say they have
a “great deal of confidence” in science.
Source: AP-NORC Center study Confidence in Institutions: Trends in Americans’Attitudes toward Government, Media, and Business
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COOK’S ILLUSTRATED EXAMPLE
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COOK’S ILLUSTRATED EXAMPLE
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ADD OUTSIDE YOUR BUBBLE
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Voice
Volume
Vulnerability: compare, don’t exclude, and
prototype in public to work with users,
not for them
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To regain trust, we must empower people and
build their confidence—in themselves and in
their ability to learn and shift beliefs as they
take in new information.
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Voice: champion familiarity over precision
and consistency over novelty
Volume: offer enough detail to convey a
complete story and make the user feel smart
Vulnerability: compare, don’t exclude, and
prototype in public to work with users,
not for them
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Do we live in a post-fact era?
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Do we live in a post-fact era?
When was the fact era?