Visuals Impact Web Site Visitors Instantaneously

There’s a fascinating article on Nature.com today about how quickly Web site visitors make a judgement about a Web site’s visual impact—they do it fast.

From the story, titled “Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye”:

Like the look of our website? Whatever the answer (and hopefully it was yes), the chances are you made your mind up within the first twentieth of a second. A study by researchers in Canada has shown that the snap decisions Internet users make about the quality of a web page have a lasting impact on their opinions.

The story goes on to imply that having a negative visual impact means visitors may leave before they even know what you’re offering, but I don’t know that that is necessarily true. Bad design can hurt a Web site, it’s true, but it isn’t the only factor in creating a usable Web site—just apparently the one that makes the first impression on your visitors.

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 01/17 at 02:07 PM • A Little Design
Tracker Pixel for Entry

Comments

  1. I think, as you suggest, that there are a number of factors that can make a web-site sticky or turn the visitor away. I still believe that plenty of ‘white space’ can help the readability of any web-site. A crammed site can make a visitor feel overloaded.

    Posted by Steve Harold on 01/25/06 at 01:33 AM

  2. This imposes even greater responsibility on marketers to make sure websites and email (and even the companion—direct mail) are contextually relevant to the target audience. If the marketing initiative does not click in the blink, we are toast.

    First impressions are powerful motivators. The graphics must appeal. The Headline must be so spot on that it literally screams “I am relevant to your needs!” Once we have their attention, we can move on to tell the rest of the story.

    Posted by Dale Wolf on 01/29/06 at 06:41 PM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.

Next entry: Movable Type on Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting

Previous entry: Igniting Buzz Conference Feb. 27, 2006

<< Back to main