Web designers take note: you have less than a second to make a good first impression when someone visits your web page.
Researchers [at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada] found that the brain makes decisions in just a twentieth of a second of viewing a webpage.
Not only does the brain make an instant judgment about the site based on a split-second glimpse at its design … this judgment also influences the user’s opinion of its content:
[T]hese quickly-formed first impressions last because of what is known to psychologists as the “halo effect”. If people believe a website looks good, then this positive quality will spread to other areas, such as the website’s content.
Since people like to be right, they will continue to use the website that made a good first impression, as this will further confirm that their initial decision was a good one.
So our task is to snag the user in 1/20 of a second in order to get her to read what it has to say. No pressure!
Ideas and thoughts related to customer experience, usability, learning, cognitive science, and whatever else I find interesting.
