User-Aware Trust Evaluation of Web Services: A Fuzzy-Based MCDM Approach

With the development of service-based and cloud-based architectures, the number of web services is rapidly increasing, and when users use these services, they expect reliability, security, and performance. However, existing trust evaluation approaches are predominantly based on QoS characteristics (e.g., availability, throughput, and compliance) and do not fully reflect user satisfaction and expectations. This research addresses this gap by posing the following research question: How can a fuzzy-based multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach incorporate user experience to enhance web service trust score evaluation under uncertainty? To address this, we propose a trust score–weighted model and an evaluation approach that extends traditional methods by integrating a fuzzy-based MCDM approach, such as fuzzy TOPSIS, fuzzy VIKOR, and fuzzy WASPAS, thereby allowing both objective service metrics and subjective user expectations to be jointly considered when evaluating service trust. The results of the proposed approach demonstrate the evaluation of trust scores through a fuzzy-based MCDM approach, allowing for the ranking of WSs. Our case study validates the model’s ability to incorporate predictive quality-of-service performance and its relevance to real-world, user-centric service selection scenarios.