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.
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"It really is just a physiological response," Gitte Lindgaard told Reuters on Tuesday. "So Web designers have to make sure they're not offending users visually.
"If the first impression is negative, you'll probably drive people off."
In the study, researchers discovered that people could rate the visual appeal of sites after seeing them for just one-twentieth of a second. These judgments were not random, the researchers found -- sites that were flashed up twice were given similar ratings both times
Many high school seniors and incoming freshmen are going to the web to check out everything about their new college home. A prospective fraternity has a real chance to make a good (or bad) influence in that brief moment. Unfortunately the study did not provide guidance about how to make a site more appealing. You'll have to get that on your own.
Internet users judge Web sites in less than a blink - Yahoo! News
