Web Credibility
August 5th, 2006
Note to self: memorise Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility
- Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
- Show that there’s a real organization behind your site.
- Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
- Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
- Make it easy to contact you.
- Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
- Make your site easy to use — and useful.
- Update your site’s content often (at least show it’s been reviewed recently).
- Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
- Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.
Update
Memorisation successful! But I had to re-order them before they sunk in. Here are my more memorable (and more natural?) groupings:
People related
- Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site
- Show that there’s a real organization behind your site
- Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide
Site related
- Design your site so it looks professional
- Make your site easy to use – and useful
- Update often
- Make it easy to contact you
- Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site
Negatives
- Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem
- Use restraint with promotional content