Readers Judge Websites in the Blink of an Eye
When I was doing the solo web design thing a couple years back I found I always had a hard time explaining the importance of design to a client. As a lover of great design you know the value in it, but most business people like to hear these things in quantitative terms. Last month I talked about design and getting links, but even that might not be enough to persuade a client. Next I tackled design and banner ads, but even that might not push your potential client over the edge to lay down the cash to pay for your services.
Well here is a more professional study done by researchers who get paid to research this kind of thing. Nature.com is reporting that the majority of people pass judgement on a website in less than second. If that doesn’t show your clients the value great design has, then I’m not sure what does.
Lindgaard and her team presented volunteers with the briefest glimpses of web pages previously rated as being either easy on the eye or particularly jarring, and asked them to rate the websites on a sliding scale of visual appeal. Even though the images flashed up for just 50 milliseconds, roughly the duration of a single frame of standard television footage, their verdicts tallied well with judgements made after a longer period of scrutiny.
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The lasting effect of first impressions is known to psychologists as the ‘halo effect’: if you can snare people with an attractive design, they are more likely to overlook other minor faults with the site, and may rate its actual content (such as this article, for example) more favourably.
Fascinating and a great article to show current and future clients. Looking back at which categories will fail in 2006 and the companies within them, I wouldn’t be surprised to see many fall based on poor design.
Article found via Darren.
I totally agree with that, it’s very important; but sometimes great design get lost between marketing and art directors, so it’s really difficult to accomplish at least you’re doing something for yourself (sort of a personal project).
Although, there are some times were you can get to work with great art directors and marketing consultants; so it’s very relative really.
Great post!
By Javier Cabrera (ClearYourMind) on January 16, 2006 12:43 pm
That will depend on the nature of the client but I agree that a viewer will judge the website in 1 or 2 seconds.
Now if the client has an urge to find something he will take more time looking for it in the website, either it has a good or not so good design.
But yeah, design is important to sell a product and establish a bound between company and client.
By Mario on January 16, 2006 1:23 pm
Being a solo designer myself in a company that before I turned up though rotating gifs made a website, I really understand the importance of offering clients and employers a quantitive reason for design principles. You can prove it in the field - just managed to prove web standards through example and now we are a totally css web standard company - the first in our area and as result getting lots of new clients. Ultimately if you can prove through real world application any business person be they marketing or sales understands. In the world of web design it is hard to remember that others hold fiscal proof above good looks of practices.
By karmatosed on January 16, 2006 1:29 pm
This is currenlty being discussed on a Sitepoint thread that was recently hilighted:
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336457
(Study: Users Form Opinions on Websites in 50 Milliseconds)
By Dustin Diaz on January 16, 2006 2:07 pm
I think this is very interesting:
So it’s not about bling bling, it’s about good and efficient design. I think that’s the most important message from this report.
By Roger Johansson on January 16, 2006 4:09 pm
I’ve noticed that a lot of firms or designers tend to combine “Design” with Information Architecture, when in reality they are two different entities.
Design entails the visual look and feel of the site and mainly affects the perceived value of a site whereas Information Architecture is the framework in which the site’s usability is built upon. If we can learn to separate the two concepts, it becomes much easier to task to sell each to the client.
By RonnieSan on January 17, 2006 1:49 am
Page load time (speed of your site) and the first impression made by the design — absolutely critical.
By Doug on January 17, 2006 12:41 pm
I totally agree with your article it really does matter on the appearence of the design of the site i know myself if i don’t like the way the site looks and the design is not professional then i will move on.
By myspace on February 21, 2006 8:16 am