Affective design of E-commerce user interfaces: how to maximise perceived trustworthiness

Successful e-commerce user experience design depends on a large number of factors. This paper focuses on consumers’ acceptance of and trust in an e-commerce system, based on the transaction’s value and perceived risk. The model of trust for ecommerce (MoTEC) by Egger (2000) provides a framework making explicit factors likely to affect customer trust. For each model component, design principles are provided, along with more concrete guidelines. It will be shown that the user interface is only one element of the customer experience. Designing for trust therefore requires user experience strategists to look beyond the mere design of the web site and pay attention to more general management and marketing issues.