Designing for Trust on Social Media

An introduction to the methodology of building trust on social media platforms

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Social media has changed today’s information and communication landscape. Individuals and communities often use these platforms as a resource for knowledge sharing. However, a rise in the spread of mis/disinformation has increasingly served to blur the lines between fact and fiction in ways that have eroded trust in these platforms and information itself. As different types of social media platforms work to reestablish trust it is important to understand how design considerations influence and contextualize our understanding of “trustworthy” information systems.

WHAT IS TRUST?

We define trust as the feeling of security and comfort that can stem from a person or platform. A trusting relationship is formed when a user comes in with a set of expectations of what they want to get from using the platform and then uses the platform to assess those expectations.

Example

Learn more about our definition of Trust

Users can learn about the growing issues of misinformation in social media and actively become participants in fighting it.

Designers can gain insights on how previous social media designs have worked to fight against misinformation and implement trust throughout the design process.