Designing for humans. Encoding for machines.

A system for evaluating whether digital experiences are coherent and credible enough to earn belief, not just attention.

Trust is not built through reputation alone. It depends on what people and systems can see, interpret, and act on in the experience itself. The Trust Stack helps organizations evaluate the credibility signals that earn trust across five dimensions: provenance, resonance, coherence, transparency, and verification. It identifies where credibility is holding, where it could erode, and what needs to change before the gap becomes a performance problem.

Before launch, the Trust Stack helps teams assess whether credibility signals are structurally sound as products, features, and AI systems enter the market. After launch, it helps identify where confidence is weakening in real interactions and what is driving hesitation, confusion, abandonment, or loss of trust.

It also supports broader strategic work by helping leadership teams determine where credibility matters most, how it is interpreted across people and systems, and what needs to change across product, content, communications, governance, and operations.

Click the cube or tabs to explore each dimension.

Do I know who made this and where it came from?
Clear authorship and origin make it easier to recognize what is official, accountable, and safe to engage with.
What to look for
Design & Innovation Opportunities
Risk if Provenance fails
    Impact when Provenance works
      Experience Layer

      The Trust Stack does not replace model governance, security, legal, or regulatory review. It focuses on a different layer: whether credibility is clear and readable in the experience itself. A system may be technically robust, but if people cannot understand what it is doing, why it is recommending something, or whether it is safe to act on, confidence still breaks. This is the layer the Trust Stack is designed to evaluate.

      Human & Machine Signals

      For the Trust Stack to work in modern environments, credibility has to be legible to both people and machines. The Trust Stack system is built across 5 dimensions, 21 signals, and 125 evidence attributes.

      Trust Layer Human Signal LLM Signal
      Provenance People see clear origin, authorship, and accountability Structured metadata enables models to trace, index, and validate source identity
      Resonance Tone, context, and content align with intent and situation Clear semantics, stable entities, and intent signals allow accurate interpretation
      Coherence The story holds true over time and across channels Consistent narratives, entities, and structures enable cross-context understanding
      Transparency Intent, system behavior, and choices are evident and understandable Machine-readable disclosures, logic, and permissions make policy and control clear
      Verification Claims are supported by tangible evidence, not assumptions Authenticated sources, citations, and identity signals confirm accuracy and reduce uncertainty
      When the Trust Stack Is Most Useful

      When trust can no longer be assumed.

      Brand familiarity, interface polish, and reputation still matter. But when audiences trust less, evaluate faster, and AI systems increasingly shape first impressions, those signals are no longer enough on their own. The Trust Stack is built for this: when products are automated, AI-shaped, or high-stakes, and when organizations need a more structured way to understand where confidence is forming and where it is at risk.

      From Diagnosis to Action

      Find where credibility is already breaking down before it becomes a performance problem you can no longer reverse.

      Before launch, it helps teams evaluate whether credibility signals are structurally sound as products, features, and AI systems enter the market. After launch, it helps identify where confidence weakens in real interactions and what is contributing to hesitation, confusion, abandonment, or loss of trust.

      It also supports broader strategic work by helping leadership teams determine where credibility has the greatest impact, how it is interpreted across people and systems, and what needs to change across product, content, communications, governance, and operations.

      This page defines: Define the Trust Stack system and explain how each dimension supports trust, clarity, and business performance.

      This page is for: Product, brand, CX, governance, and innovation teams evaluating credibility across digital experiences.

      Primary business claim: The five dimensions help organizations diagnose credibility, reduce friction, and make value easier to recognize and verify.

      Interpretation guidance: This page should be read as page-level guidance for human visitors and machine interpretation. It does not constitute certification, legal advice, or a guarantee of performance unless another page explicitly states otherwise.