Learning to design “About Us” pages can teach you how to establish trust and credibility
Three factors that help persuade your users that your organization is worth engaging with
I realized I didn’t know much about garnering trust as an organization until I had to design an “About Us” page.
“About Us” pages are weird, especially since many people might not pay attention to them while using a company’s site. It’s not surprising to think it’s a low-priority page, but it can be beneficial for specific users and scenarios, such as:
Business professionals who want to interact with business partners and investigate potential vendors
Medical professionals, lawyers, journalists, or tradespeople who need answers about your company, products, or services
Job seekers who are attracted by a job opportunity and want to learn about the organization before applying
“About Us” pages are often a way for the business to tell you about their product and their vision, team, and company focus. But in an age where overall consumer trust in businesses might be middling, it’s no surprise that users expect companies to demonstrate a heightened level of authenticity and transparency with every interaction with an organization.
As a result, designing an “About Us” page often teaches a lesson about establishing trust and credibility. It can also be a master class in learning Robert Cialdini’s six principles of influence.
Six principles of influence and how they can affect the design
Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, talks about six principles of influence that marketers use to persuade users to take action:
Reciprocity
Commitment and Consistency
Social Proof
Authority
Liking
Scarcity
These factors always influence the design to some degree, especially in terms of the copy that’s produced to describe products, but the “About Us” page is where 3 of these factors are often crucial to establishing credibility and getting users to engage with you: Liking, Authority, and Social proof.
Liking, authenticity, and providing what they need
Few things can kill a user’s interest in your site faster than appearing inauthentic. A website having stock photos, corporate jargon, or complex copy makes it feel like the organization is soulless and the design is inauthentic.
However, one thing can make your website seem inauthentic more than any other: when you don’t showcase essential information that users will look for quickly.
One of the most common examples is “Contact information.” Users often head to the About Us (or the related Contact Us) page to figure this out if it’s not immediately visible from the home page.
Being able to show the organization’s contact information or even ways to contact a person on the team can go a long way in establishing trust.
One other powerful approach that many organizations take to establish authenticity is to tell a story of how they got to where they are. For example, rather than outright state what value your company offers (“We are a cloud-based data imaging company that does X.”), many companies offer the story of what drove them to create their business or the people behind their effort.
In terms of authenticity, here are some design elements that you might want to consider:
A clear, one-sentence headline that sums up what you offer (in plain and simple language)
Using realistic imagery or clean graphic designs consistent with the company’s image
Stories about the business model, policies, or working at the company
Plain language for easy to understand headlines and copy
Showing the team behind the effort
Easy-to-find contact information, including telephone, physical addresses, e-mail, and chat
Highlighting community efforts
However, authenticity isn’t the only thing users come to the website. There’s also the idea of authority.
Authority, stats, and providing evidence
Beyond just telling a story, you also want to highlight your strengths and evidence that backs up these strengths. This is because, on some level, you want to show you are an authority in the field.
This can be especially important for business professionals, who want to know what they’re purchasing can be a justified expense if anyone asks them why they bought your product.
As a result, there are specific statistics that are almost always used to emphasize authority:
Year the company was founded (i.e., “you’re not two dudes in a garage that started the business last week.”)
User interactions or activity (Monthly/Daily Active Users, digital interactions, templates created, etc.)
Employees (especially if you have more than 50 employees)
Geography/Nationalities (i.e., “You’re not two dudes in San Francisco that think they are representative of the world.”)
Social proof (who uses our software, etc.)
However, sometimes statistics aren’t enough. That’s where the last method, Social Proof, comes into play.
Social proof, credentials, and avoiding risk
I’ve talked about Social Proof as a persuasion method before, but it is often one of the driving forces behind B2B UX Design. Users don’t want to feel like they’re diving head-first into something untested, so showing that others have gone through this (and approve) are powerful tools to harness.
Reviews and recommendations from trusted peers are essential criteria when forming an impression about an organization. Having another company’s logo on the About us page can provide a strong signal of social proof that users can trust your organization.
The About Us page is sometimes crucial for certain users
The About Us page can sometimes be hidden or considered a low priority for many users, but that doesn’t mean designers should ignore it. It’s often crucial for certain users whose interactions with your organization hinge on trust and credibility.
The page's primary purpose isn’t to get you to buy something or explain how the product is being used: it’s to shine a light on the more human aspects of the business.
Understanding what drives a business can be crucial to determining whether they’re worth investing in a million-dollar contract or even whether they’re worth working for. As a result, establishing this trust often requires designers to take a step back and look at the larger organization and think about design from a different perspective.
Kai Wong is a Senior UX Designer, Design Writer, and author of the Data and Design newsletter. His new book, Data-informed UX Design, explains small changes you can make regarding data to improve your UX Design process.