"Online legitimacy": Defining institutional symbolisms for the design of information artifact in the web mediated information environment (W-MIE)

Abstract

The global nature of the Internet raises questions about variety of ways, whether and how trust is established that guide people's behavior and beliefs. This study explores on the understanding of trust from the non technical perspectives in the context of web mediated information environment (W-MIE); conceptualized within the notion of online legitimacy [1]. We take up the problem of how to enhance the trustworthiness of information on the web through the design deployment that can be rationalized and understood by the ordinary users. The paper highlights four dimensions of design elements that make up the Institutional Trust Inducing Features framework [2] which warrants increased attention. This paper is merely situating our comments in designing information artifact within a sensitive context that is culturally imbued beyond the typical security scope but rather the conceptual understand-ing on how user's engage with information interactions. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.