They look at the middle of the page, at things they can do. Companies have to understand that design has major implications for whether users trust it and feel well-treated. A classic example is shipping and handling fees. Many sites don t outline the fees. They expect that customers are going to enter credit-card information without knowing what they will be billed.
Companies have to take people s fears seriously.
Anytime a company asks for an e-mail address, something right next to the request should say how it s going to be used. It s only going to be used to communicate with you in case of problems with your order. Notice, I said monthly newsletter. I didn t say at any random time . The true executive mistake is not really believing in the Web, not really understanding that it will fundamentally change the relationship between companies and customers, change entire product structures and total organizations.