Internet Changes Everything

Research: Internet Users Judge Sites in 50 Milliseconds

Research: Internet Users Judge Sites in 50 Milliseconds - Yahoo! News

Robin Arnfield, newsfactor.com Mon Jan 16, 4:06 PM ET

Those who surf the Internet typically make snap decisions about the quality of a Web site, according to a new research study.
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The researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital city, discovered that the human brain makes decisions in a twentieth of a second after seeing a Web page for the first time.

This finding came as a surprise to the researchers as they had thought Internet users would take at least 10 times longer to make a judgment about the quality of a Web site.

Academic Research

The Canadian university researchers' study was published in the academic journal Behaviour & Information Technology. The journal is published by Taylor & Francis of the UK.

"Visual appeal can be assessed within 50 milliseconds, suggesting that Web designers have about 50 milliseconds to make a good impression," the Canadian researchers reported.

Gitte Lindgaard and her research team at Carleton University flashed up Web pages for 50 milliseconds and asked survey participants to rate the pages according to aesthetic appeal.

The participants then were asked to examine the site carefully and to provide a new rating. The two categories of ratings -- the first based on a quick glance the second on a detailed examination -- were consistent with each other, the research team found.

Commercial Impact

Lindgaard said in the report that her team's findings have broad implications for commercial Web sites. "Unless the first impression is favorable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors," she wrote in the report.

According to Lindgaard, a visitor's first impression of a Web site has a lasting impact. The report argued that these quickly formed first impressions endure because of what psychologists call the "halo effect" -- a phrase that refers to the fact that a person's initial favorable bias toward something affects subsequent judgments.

In other words, if visitors think that a Web site looks good, then this positive attitude will influence how they feel about other areas of the site, such as its content.

According to Lingaard, because human beings like to be right, they will continue to use the Web site that made a good first impression because doing so will further confirm that their initial decision was a good one.

January 17, 2006 at 12:12 PM in Web lifestyle | Permalink | TrackBack (37) | Top of page | Blog Home