According to Canadian researchers from Carlton University, whose study was published in the latest issue of the Behaviour and Information Technology journal:

Web designers have as little as 50 milliseconds to capture the interest of potential customers. Through the halo effect, first impressions can influence subsequent judgments of website credibility and buying decisions.

This means that Internet users can give websites a thumbs up or thumbs down in less than the blink of an eye. In just a brief one-twentieth of a second — less than half the time it takes to blink — people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an internet site.

These judgments were not random, the researchers found that sites that were flashed up twice were given similar ratings both times.

The study’s highlights included:

  • Designers have to make sure they’re not offending users visually.
  • If the first impression is negative, you’ll probably drive people off.
  • The vagaries of personal taste would always be a limiting factor.
  • The strong impact of the visual appeal of the site seemed to draw attention away from usability problems.

Conclusions
If aesthetics, or visual appeal, is detected first this could influence how users judge subsequent experience. So, even if a website is highly usable and provides very useful information presented in a logical arrangement, this may fail to impress a user whose first impression of the site was negative.

Even though your site may have superior products, services, or usability, an initial negative impression from a poor or slow design can steer customers towards your competition.

You only get one chance to create a good first impression, make it count. A clean, professional, and fast-loading site can ensure that your first impression will be a good one.

ContentRobot feels that blog design should be approached in the same way.

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To learn more about the “blink factor,” check out Malcolm Gladwell’s: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” – a great read and highly recommended.

This post was inspired by articles on Wired and WebsiteOptimization.com.