A good part of communication previously carried out between humans now relies on technology and human-computer interaction. With Internet technologies and infrastructures to support e-commerce mostly established – although always evolving –, focusing on the psychological factors that affect e-commerce acceptance by online users has been on the rise. One such factor, playing a significant role in the success of e-commerce, is trust [7].

For a company, a website is often the first point of contact for potential customers, responsible for first impressions and generating revenue. Companies that design for trust have a strategic advantage over competitors. Without trust, visitors leave the website immediately. The probability of leaving is higher during the first seconds. While most companies know they need to have trust components on a website, they are often overlooked because sometimes, it does not provide measurable value [2].

It has been shown that web browsing exhibits a significant “negative ageing” phenomenon, meaning that some initial screening has to be passed before a page is examined in detail, giving rise to the browsing behaviour called “screen-and-glean” [4]. To gain only several minutes of users’ attention, a website must clearly communicate its value proposition within 10 seconds [5]. A study by Bentley University Design and Usability Center demonstrates that when people first navigate to a website, businesses have about 6 seconds to create a positive impression with users [1]. This is an extremely small window of time to convince users that the website is one that they can trust making a purchase from.

Although trust is a crucial factor in e-commerce and the concept has been widely studied by several authors, a comprehensive, easy-to-follow checklist of components that companies could utilise when designing their website was either missing or outdated. Nevertheless, almost every company struggles with website credibility, as visitors are immediately skeptical [6].

In line with the aforementioned shortcoming, the study aims to understand the components in website design needed to build a trustworthy website; and to propose an up-do-date design checklist. The following research questions were formulated to reach this goal.

Study.

To answer the research questions and test the checklist of trust components proposed, an experiment was carried out online, focusing on the quantitative results collected from two different websites of Estonian furniture manufacturers. The A/B test featured a between-subjects study design. The questionnaire guided participants through four separate parts: first impression, design assessment, trust assessment, and final comments. A 7-point Likert scale was used for all questions. To evaluate participants’ trust perception, the trust assessment model by Gulati et al. [3] was put into practice. An online user experience and screen recording platform was used to gain additional insight into users’ browsing behaviour.

A total of 50 participants were recruited for the study. They were randomly assigned into two groups, 25 in each.

Results.

The data revealed that the website with an attractive and contemporary design (the perceived average quality of design in Website A was 5.71; first impression 5.67) implicated considerably higher trust than the website with a dull and outdated design (the perceived average quality of design in Website B was 3.54; first impression 3.16).

In order to measure users’ trust perceptions, participants were asked about benevolence (BEN), competency (COMP), reciprocity (REC), risk (RISK), and general trust (GEN) – the constructs coined by Gulati et al. [3]. The overall trust level of Website A was 6.05 (86.41%), while the overall trust level of Website B was 3.88 (55.39%). Based on the trust model, scores between 80–90% are considered as a high trust level, while scores between 50–60% are considered as a very low trust level.

The results of the study present demonstrable evidence that website design has a powerful impact on users’ trust perceptions.