In many UX conversations, "trust" gets mentioned in passing-something we want users to feel, often measured indirectly through satisfaction scores or completion rates. But when you're designing for people in high-stakes or vulnerable situations-whether it's health, finance, public services, or humanitarian contexts-trust isn’t just nice to have. It’s foundational.
In my own research, particularly with displaced learners and underserved communities, trust wasn’t abstract. It was the difference between someone participating or walking away, engaging deeply or just ticking the box. And building it didn’t start with the interface-it started way earlier.
Trust Starts Before the Product
When we began designing learning systems for refugee children and families in camps and urban schools, the first challenge was access-but the second, just as critical, was trust. People didn’t always believe the system would help. Some worried about surveillance or misuse. Others had simply lost faith in any outside intervention.
So before talking usability or features, we spent time listening. Sitting with parents, educators, and community workers. Asking what they needed, not what we assumed. That early presence built the foundation for everything that followed.
Translating Trust into Design
We approached trust-building in the system design with a few key principles:
▪ Transparency: Clear language about what data was collected and why. No hidden permissions, no buried terms.
▪ Control: Offline functionality gave users autonomy. They didn’t need to stay connected or register accounts if they didn’t want to.
▪ Representation: Visual and content choices reflected the communities involved. That made users feel seen-and safe.
▪ Progressive onboarding: We avoided overwhelming users upfront. They could explore and build confidence gradually.
These design decisions weren’t driven by aesthetics or efficiency. They were about emotional safety.
Trust as an Expression of Care, Empathy, and Inclusion
One of the core findings from my doctoral work was that trust isn’t just about data or privacy, it’s deeply emotional. In many of the participatory sessions, trust emerged through themes of being cared for, feeling understood, and being included, of course in addition to transparency and being straight forward in promising what can or cannot be done. Participants often linked trust to how much they felt seen and supported, not just what they were told.
I’ll be including a thematic map from my PhD that shows how trust clustered with themes of help, empathy, and inclusion. These findings grounded the way we approached design: not just building something secure, but something that showed care.
Field Realities that Informed the Work
One mother told us she avoided a previous platform because it asked for too much information too soon. Another learner said they felt more comfortable using our tool because it had stories from kids who “looked like them.” A youth worker mentioned how our workshops felt different because “you weren’t just collecting stories-you were staying to hear them.”
These weren’t metrics. They were indicators of trust.
Why This Matters Beyond Humanitarian Work
Trust is a universal need, but it looks different depending on the context. In fintech, it’s about transparency in fees and control over data. In healthcare, it’s about clear consent and compassionate tone. In civic services, it’s about showing users their input actually matters.
The techniques we used-co-design, transparency, representation, and gradual onboarding-are all transferable. They’re just more visible when the stakes are higher.
A Quick Framework for Designing for Trust
If you're working in a sensitive or high-stakes context, here’s a lightweight checklist that I’ve found useful:
▪ Have you shown up before the research officially starts?
▪ Can users understand and control their data?
▪ Do they see themselves in the product?
▪ Can they test safely, without full commitment?
▪ Are you asking for too much, too soon?
Trust is slow to build and easy to break-but it can also be designed for, intentionally.
Sometimes trust is built not by what you design, but how you show up.
Would you like a follow-up post with examples of trust-building patterns in public services or healthcare apps?
