Trust is one of the most talked-about concepts in digital product design, and one of the least understood. We treat it as something users feel, measure it through opinion, and design for it through intuition.
But what happens when the stakes are higher than conversion or engagement?
Working on safeguarding products used by more than 11 million children, parents and educators reinforced a belief I already held: that trust can’t be treated as sentiment alone. When outcomes matter this much, it has to be evidenced through behaviour, reliability, accessibility and real-world impact.
This talk shares how safeguarding changed my approach to research and product decision-making: why qualitative insight alone isn’t enough, how systems thinking surfaces problems that a clean interface can hide, and how teams can move from vibes-based UX to an evidence-first practice.
Attendees will leave with a practical framework for designing and measuring trust, and a sharper question to bring back to their own products: not ‘do users like this?‘, but ‘do they trust it enough to rely on it when it matters?‘
Product Manager, Smoothwall
