Friday, January 20, 2006
First Impressions Count
A timely study discussed in Nature and the BBC by Gitte Lindgard of Canada's Carleton University reveals that users have a durable first impression of website design and aesthetics within as little as 50 msec. 1/20th second, faster than a blink, pre-cognitive, too fast to process.
Jared Spool and Perfetti picked up on this on their Brain Sparks, as some may recall, they have promoted the idea of 5 second instant evaluations of the first impression of a website. While a lot of the examples cited (Craig's List, Google, eBay) are very well established
This is a "research pattern" I like to use in almost every usability protocol, as a first task, evaluating first impression before you miss the chance. You only have the one chance to acquire an initial response to a design concept. That chance should be embraced, indulged, then analyzed with all the other responses acquired.
One thing I noticed about these studies is that they are not comparing multiple alternatives of the same concept, which is what we often do in design research. When conducting evaluations comparing two or more alternatives of a visual design used in a site or product, its helpful to balance the alternatives between participants, to control for order effects. Remember to randomize! It is probably more important to balance the order of presentation of visual/perceptual effects (such as a first impression) than for consciously-performed tasks. There is only one first impression, even among alternatives.
Jared Spool and Perfetti picked up on this on their Brain Sparks, as some may recall, they have promoted the idea of 5 second instant evaluations of the first impression of a website. While a lot of the examples cited (Craig's List, Google, eBay) are very well established
This is a "research pattern" I like to use in almost every usability protocol, as a first task, evaluating first impression before you miss the chance. You only have the one chance to acquire an initial response to a design concept. That chance should be embraced, indulged, then analyzed with all the other responses acquired.
One thing I noticed about these studies is that they are not comparing multiple alternatives of the same concept, which is what we often do in design research. When conducting evaluations comparing two or more alternatives of a visual design used in a site or product, its helpful to balance the alternatives between participants, to control for order effects. Remember to randomize! It is probably more important to balance the order of presentation of visual/perceptual effects (such as a first impression) than for consciously-performed tasks. There is only one first impression, even among alternatives.
