Information Architecture, Trust and Web Application Security

Two articles in particular caught my attention this week relating to designers and developers engaging clients in the development process. Both are worth a read and, I think, consideration in your own web projects.

The first was a great outline of Educating the Client on Information Architecture on A List Apart. The discussion seemed to focus a little too much on static content (data) and probably needs to address data flows and where security boundaries occur in the information architecture. But by using the suggested approach, it makes consideration of security controls much easier.

Secondly, the business case for web application security was discussed on Securosis.com - this was Part 2 of a series of posts about building a web application security program - Part 1 which I had missed was an introduction. The post lists six typical drivers used to justify web application security investments - but I think "User Trust" should be an additional one. Increased trust helps overcome perceptions of risk and insecurity and leads to a greater likelihood of users undertaking, completing and repeating web site processes.

If you are interested in the effect of trust, the multidimensional nature of trust is discussed in detail in McKnight, Choudhury and Kacmar's papers on Developing and Validating Trust Measures for e-Commerce: An Integrative Typology, Information Systems Research, Vol 13, No 3, September 2002, pp 334–359 and Distrust and Trust in B2C E-Commerce: Do They Differ?, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Electronic Commerce, 2006, pp 482-491. The reference lists included in these papers provide additional and alternative views on trust.