Business Need

Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, wanted to understand how consumers make decisions about the credibility of information they obtain get from the web. The goal was to investigate, inform, and improve the credibility of information published online. Sliced Bread Design, in conjunction with the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, performed a study to learn how health and finance experts judge web sites in their domains compared to how average consumers judge the same sites.

Strategy & Solution

To better understand the credibility gap between experts and average consumers, we:

• Defined, identified, and recruited health and finance experts to assess the credibility of ten sites in their area of expertise
• Designed a four-part study for the experts that included: detailed written assessment of each site, pair-ranking of sites, 1-to-10 ranking of sites, ranking of site variables, and optional open-ended questions
• Created coding categories for the online study tool
• Coordinated findings with Stanford to understand differences between our expert findings and their consumer findings
• Provided recommendations to web publishers for how to increase credibility, and identified opportunities for consumer education
• Worked with Consumers Union to publicize the findings