The impact of design elements for the purpose of increasing trust in home renovation companies’ websites

The existing research available on website credibility has been carried out primarily on e-commerce, travel, news, and online gaming sites. The results identified the credible design elements of those websites. Considering the recent surge in home renovation demand in Sweden, investigating the impact of those design elements when implementing them on websites for companies in the home renovation industry is worth investigating. This study assumes that the first interaction between the user and a company takes place through their website and the goal of this study was to identify which design elements from the existing research on website credibility affect the user’s trust and what encourages them to pursue further contact. Prominence-Interpretation Theory was implemented to identify which attributes the user interprets as credible and should be prominent on a construction company's website. A mixed method approach was used to derive data: a quantitative survey and qualitative semi-structured interviews. The survey was based on the existing research on website credibility where specific credible design elements were tested and ranked, which produced objective results. The study results showed that an interface including the company’s services and contact details, photos of completed projects and employees as well as a well thought-out and visually appealing design and layout were significant in building trust