The effect of familiar logos on trust of websites designed for small user interfaces

The market for mobile Internet-based devices is in its infancy and may grow to over $550 billion by 2008. However, the growth of the mobile-device market is limited by problems related to cost, speed, security, privacy, usability, and trust. In particular, lack of consumer trust is said to be the most significant long-term barrier for m-commerce. As such, this research focuses on how familiar company logos on small-device websites affect users’ perceptions of credibility and subsequent trust of the company. Using a highly controlled laboratory experiment, we found that when users are briefly exposed to small-device websites that have graphical logos of companies with positive reputations, those users have significantly higher levels of website trust. Not using logos or company identifiers, or using known logos of companies with negative reputations resulted in far less trust. Given the dramatically limited screen space of mobile devices, designers may be tempted to conserve space by eliminating graphical logos. The results of our study indicate that graphical logos should be considered for this limited space to likely increase the initial trust perceptions that predict website use. Companies that do not have established or positive reputations can still benefit from these findings by incorporating known and credible logos from partner companies.