Your customers are coming to your website, using your app, and completing their tasks, such as purchasing a product, making a payment, or gathering information. Customers’ task completion is a measure of success for many companies, but to create a good user experience (UX), it is just the bare minimum. There is more to consider for creating good, fulfilling experiences: Can users achieve their goals easily? How did they feel throughout the experience? Do they think they found the best information available on the site, or are they unsure about where else to look? How confident were they when searching for what they need, taking actions, and completing their tasks?

Good UX Goes Beyond Ease And Effectiveness

Clients often ask for my feedback on their app and website design. A common pattern I observe in those reviews is that many companies prioritize having the right features but settle for a user experience that meets the bare minimum — task completion — without paying enough attention to making the process intuitive and enjoyable for the user.

The UX field has long emphasized ease and effectiveness, but good UX is also shaped by whether customers feel valued, understood, and confident. We define user confidence as: a user’s belief that a product, service, or system works as they expect and is dependable. When the design builds confidence, users not only complete tasks successfully but also have emotionally positive experiences that drive loyalty and build trust.

How To Boost Confidence In Digital Experiences

Boosting confidence in digital experiences requires conducting research to understand customers and applying UX best practices. In our new report, Design For Confidence To Build Trust, I discuss seven best practices to boost confidence in digital experiences. Here are three of those practices:

  1. Inform users on their progress and the result of their actions. Users hesitate to proceed on apps or websites without clear information on what happens next. What’s going to happen after clicking “continue” in your mobile banking app or a website you’re shopping on? Will the system require more information to complete your task, or will you be charged for your purchase next? Provide descriptive button language to clarify the next steps and keep users updated on their progress to avoid confusion.
  2. Provide relevant and important information proactively. A lack of guidance and relevant information causes uncertainty; providing clear details, such as delivery dates and necessary documents, for tasks supports confident decisions. Don’t maroon useful information in siloed help centers; provide users with the help and support they need throughout the experience.
  3. Maintain consistent design. Inconsistencies in design (e.g., competing navigational structures that create unclear hierarchy, pages with different looks) make users question the quality of the service and their trust in the company. Adopt a design system to ensure that all design elements are consistent across the user experience. Make sure that navigation leads users to screens with a consistent look and feel and that users understand whether they’re in the app or on the website.

Check out the report for more best practices and examples to improve user confidence in digital experiences.

Let’s Connect

How do you think about user confidence in your experiences? If you’re a Forrester client and would like to discuss this topic further, set up a conversation with me here. You can also follow or connect with me on LinkedIn.