Last updated at Wed, 26 Jul 2017 22:40:43 GMT
We spend a lot of time identifying trustworthiness in our day-to-day lives. We constantly evaluate trustworthiness in both the people that we meet and in the products and services that we decide to interact with.
Imagine that you're like Tarzan in the jungle; you're trying to navigate your way through products and services using the vines that hang in your path. Each vine either helps or hinders your path forward. Some are stronger than others and help you swing a far distance quickly and effectively (angel patterns). Others are actually snakes masquerading as vines. You reach out to grab hold and instead get bitten, releasing your grip and falling to the ground (Dark Patterns).
As a user swinging through the jungle of products and services, it's easy to mistake a snake for a vine and end up lost on the ground. As designers, we need to do everything we can to make the vines of angel patterns obvious and remove the dark pattern snakes from the user's path.
Like any new relationship, using new software starts with a little bit of anxiety. In software products, this anxiety is felt the first time a user engages with your product. A product with clear and honest messaging with transparent communications can reduce such user anxiety. We call it an angel pattern. There are many such angel patterns to achieve trustworthy experience. Read the original article published in User Experience Magazine to learn how we apply these patterns.
