Authenticity and trust on the Internet

Chris Heathcote

@antimegaanti-mega.com

I realised after submitting it that this sounds like the most boring talk ever from this title

or

so I’m renaming it

got to be real

if you think I’m going to be talking about things like OpenID, OAuth

xwell, sorry, I’m not

not talking about technical trust

I’m not talking about technical ideas of trust

identitytrustauthenticity

these words have been co-opted to be technical specifications

trust is rarely binary

that don’t work the same way as their equivalents in the real world

trust grows over time

you gain trust over time

generally, we are trusting

we as humans trust others - this is a good thing

& we’re very good at smelling rats

and we’re good at judging how much we should trust each other

here’s a restaurant review comment, probably by PR - slightly too much detail, people write in a different way when they have an agenda

on the Internet we have so little to go on

but we have very little information with which to make a decision

looking for broken windows

so we look for the things that seem wrong - any little thing

I’m never an Honoured Customer...

basic craft

so, there’s trust that comes from the craft of graphic design, web design and copywriting

Dopplr

when Dopplr launched...

TripIt vs dopplr

TripIt also launched, but it just felt... American - so I used Dopplr

Google in 1999 - looks pretty much the same as now

this is how Google started in 1998, reminds me of what Altavista - then the #1 - looked like

ESTA

does this inspire confidence? It looks like it was designed on paper rather than being of the web

and this is one way of filing your tax return in the US - it smells wrong, like it’s a downloaded template. Even the security certificate is attributed to the generic-sounding Free File Alliance.

disclaimer

A disclaimer: I am not talking on behalf of gov.uk - but I have just started working there

gov.uk

It’s a solid, modern design and at least you’ll get a consistent experience with any interaction with the Government online - trust gets built through re-use

anti-design

there are many anti-design patterns that reduce trust

Verified by Visa looks undesigned and is at odds with the site you’re using

lockerz

I’m not sure, but I think Lockerz wants me to sign up with Facebook

Facebook apps

Facebook apps just don’t give enough information to judge - who made it, what will it do, what does it let me do

Yes Men

on the flip side, it’s attention to detail and craft that lets people like the Yes Men dupe others - there’s a facebook widget, Twitter, written in corporatese...

authenticity

it’s about being authentic and genuine

authenticity increases trust

which creates trust

authenticity can come from many things...

product

provenance

people

and there are many ways of proving authenticity

product

products have an easy authenticity - they exist - but also how they’re made and what they do

Brompton

Brompton make bikes. They’re designers and makers.

And they’re all still built in West London. they did look at Chinese manufacture, but it ended up being about the same price, and they’d lose all of their sales in China & Asia if they didn’t have this story and authenticity.

we love a good story

people love stories, and love products and services with a story

Moleskine started production in 1994. It’s not an old brand. But they use a bit of slightly weaselly copy to associate themselves with being 200 years old (fwiw, moleskine was the generic term used by artists to describe similar notebooks).

heritage

heritage is a great story to tell

you only have a heritage if one day you start making something new

but I want to be clear: you can only have a heritage if one day you make something new

the romance of history

many stories of authenticity are a romantic view - of a product’s history

physical products have the romance of making

or the romance of making and craft: which many makers don’t realise - because it’s their day job and there’s little romance in the actual grind of making things day after day

provenance

where things come from is a good, authentic story

Hiut

Hiut Denim have a simple premise - their town is making jeans again

which is exactly what Cardigan used to do

Historytag - the provenance of your individual object - they take photos of your jeans as they’re being made. They also embed the story directly in the product.

Nokia always wanted to be American, or Japanese. It just couldn’t understand why it could or should be proud of a long Finnish history.

and now, all physical products now have to be completely clear about their provenance, and their suppliers’ provenance

http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict-minerals

all the way back to raw materials - tin, tantalum, tungsten both cause war and enslave children in the Congo - blood electronics. We don’t own conflict-free electronics.

Internet companies shy away from being from somewhere

or actually, generally try to pretend to be American, or at least from somewhere in the mid-Atlantic

it doesn’t have to be complicated... an address you can look up in Google Maps

startups proud to be from Berlin?

but it could be so much more

people

personality

What many of the original popular web sites had in common was that it was small teams with buckets of personality

Flickr, Delicious, Upcoming ... people of the web on the web

and these people were on the web, using their product, using other services

proud

they were proud of what they had made

some of Brompton’s employees

even companies making machines of war

have a human side

faceless

many start-ups and small businesses are faceless

some systems give you little to work on - Ebay added seller ratings were introduced to add elements of trust - taken together with the amount of feedback and what people have written

Kickstarter gives you the same design and format for every project... It’s hard to discern who will be good at making and producing. It’s pretty easy to find someone to make you a convincing video, harder to make products.

People have really lost their sense of smell as to whether the people behind a project will be able to keep their promise.

When I first saw pebble is sounded great but I knew how hard it would be to make.

...so to see they’d got a prototype, and that they’ve done it before, that’s when I pledged my money.

companies companying

I feel there’s no better advertisement than seeing that a company is doing its job

even at a base level, numbers. This says millions of people have not been fired for using Basecamp.

37signals

and personal stories of users

even companies like General Electric can show their long history of making and doing on a tumblr

net-a-porter

but you can go further - this shows live shopping on net-a-porter.

bookdepository

and the same for books on thebookdepository

Things showing liveness give you confidence that you’re doing the right thing

33 other people cannot be wrong.

Even constant Twitter updates on how things are going

countries countrying

I love that this phenomenon has grown to promote countries, too.

Iceland

Iceland’s not had much luck recently. And therefore not much money to promote itself.

They’ve got a blog...

and are on Twitter...

and Facebook...

and tumblr....

and vimeo....

but they’re doing some even more interesting things. This flickr group encourages locals and tourists to upload pictures from all around Iceland...

...that turns into a tumblr.

There’s every single word in Icelandic...

Icelandic bands that are not Sigur Ros...

a shop for good Icelandic music...

Single serving Internet jokes du jour...

The whole campaign is just a small group of people given the freedom to create and make a personality that tells you more about the country than glossy brochureware.

Sweden

Sweden started doing something similar, but even cleverer.

They give the @sweden Twitter account to a different Swede every week.

They get to talk about whatever they want.

A mix of attitudes, politics, daily life...

Here’s Sweden talking to New Zealand on twitter.

And they’ve had all kinds of people - Internet entrepreneurs, lesbian truckdrivers... [since this, there’s been some controversy as the chosen curators has spoken their opinions - but instead of shutting them down, it’s been a case of the Internet engaging in conversation (and criticism)]

Twitter can be a different way to talk with customerspeople

FGW Twitter

This started as just one customer support representative. People started having conversations with her.

People aren’t really expecting answers to rhetorical frustration.

first direct

First Direct have a great brand, but these responses are still slightly depersonalised.

Aviva

Here’s an insurance company. Look, there’s Dave & Marv, they’re who you’re talking to.

It’s a lot harder to be an arsehole when you can picture the person you’re talking to

Don’t depersonalise as it grows

Response times to large customer support twitter feeds is slowing to days - the same as email or web support. People like that Twitter support feels different to standard support channels.

could this be taken further?

“Well, are you proud of what’s going on inside your company? Are you proud enough to pull up the shades and let people see inside?”Douglas Rushkoff

http://cheath.co/rushkoffquote

gov.uk github?

Again a disclaimer that I’m not talking on behalf of gov.uk... but most of our code is available on github for people to see and even help develop.

But I want to talk about an even bigger project - Ford nearly got it right in 2000, maybe just a bit too early. Ford wanted to give all employees a computer & internet connection - so they could listen to real customers and even support them. If you have a brake problem, you want to talk to the person who design the brakes, not a CS agent.

happy employees

And the only way you can open up like that is to have truly happy, engaged employees.

that won’t be sacked for making mistakes

- that won’t be told of for talking to customers

“Every company has a social media strategy whether they know it or not.”Douglas Rushkoff

http://cheath.co/rushkoffquote

“You can have your dedicated social media person chasing down consumer complaints, but your real social media strategy is how are the people who work at your company and the people who buy from your company and people who supply to your company, how are they talking about you?”

radical, personal authenticity

This is a radical, personal authenticity: the same authenticity and openness that start-ups can have, scaled massively to the largest of companies. Hard to do but offers a genuine advantage over your competition.

Thank you.

@antimegaanti-mega.com

Thanks.