[Sigia-l] Seals of Approval

[Jared Spool]

On Jan 4, 2011, at 9:29 AM, Dan Chamberlain wrote:

> I would like to hear some thoughts around "seals of approval" for  
> Web sites. For example: an organization or vendor reviews your site  
> and then awards you with an icon that symbolizes the sites Security  
> or Usability.  Do users respect these or ignore them? If you use  
> them, do you place them at the bottom or top of the page? Which are  
> the most trusted?

I've watched hundreds of shoppers make purchases from e-commerce  
sites. Some sites had the seals and badges and some didn't.

On sites without the seals and badges, I never saw a shopper stop  
their purchase because the seals were missing. They never even brought  
it up. (This was for many sites that the shopper had no previous  
experience with or knowledge of.)

On sites with the seals and badges, it never plays a role in the  
shopping experience. In many instances, I stop the shopper and ask  
them what the badges mean. They never know. I have yet to have someone  
give me any rational explanation as to who the badges are from, what  
authority they represent, or how it influences their shopping  
experience.

In many cases, poor placement of the badges actually scared shoppers  
because they didn't know how to react to them. If they accidently  
click on them, they're often taken to pages that make no sense or  
offer any value. Getting back can be an issue.

Hope that helps,

Jared

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: jspool at uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com  Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks  Twitter: @jmspool