ABSTRACT
Trust plays a critical role when a user assesses the believability of online information or when selecting an exchange site from which to purchase a product. Users will not believe or participate in a transaction with those whom they do not trust. When a design team develops an informational or exchange site, it is responsible for ensuring that a user perceives that site as trustworthy. Thus, the goal of this chapter is to provide Web designers with a definition of trust, an understanding of where trust originates and how it is perceived by a user, and a mechanism in the form of a trust taxonomy for analyzing the trust production methods of an exchange site.
