I just read this article by Reuters that says that some Canadian scientists tested people by showing them a website and asking them what they thought of it. They found that most people judge a website in 1/20 of a second. That really makes me nervous being a web designer because I biased when it comes to my own websites, I love them. Do you think you judge websites that quickly.

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Whoever thinks they can do that is crazy. There are a lot of aspects to look at when judging a site. There are the colors and if they go together, hurt your eyes, or are too dark, is everything in it's right place? Is their clean content and easy to read? Does it have a nice smooth design and easy to navigate for beginners? That is how I judge a site and it takes a lot more than 1/20 of a second. I have no idea who they are asking but I don't think it is proffessionals.

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You don't have to be a professional (anything) to use a website.

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Whoever they tested must've faked it . I don't think it's even humanly possible to judge a website so fast o_O;;. If it is and you have proof then tell me who can do that because..really 1/20 of a second.
Who'd they ask to judge the site(s)?! MONKEYS?!

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I don't think that time span is possible either. But, I would be interested in knowing the results of this testing. Like, if they didn't like the colors, your site flunked thier test. It would be nice to know which aspects made the like list and which didn't. Might help us web designers to know which designs we have wasted our time on.

 

 

 

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Ya I know that but I am thinking they are asking little 2 year olds that will either say ewwwww or cool to anything. I don't know it just doesn't seem like the people are "taking the time" to look at the website cause I think it takes atleast 1/20 of a second to actually recognize what you see cause you think they would read the title or something first to get an idea of what it is supposed to be.

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One other thing: I'd like to see the sites these people judged. -.-; The sites must have been blank or something..

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Perhaps these people didn't judge the sites quite so quickly. Maybe it was 20 seconds, not 1/20th? But it does raise a valid point just the same. Most people judge things by first impressions. This is not restricted to just web sites either, whether you like to admit to it or not, the average person will form an opinion about something or someone within about 5 seconds.

This means that visitors will form an opinion of your site, (not review) in the first 5 seconds. Therefore you had better make what happens in the those first seconds eye-catching enough to keep the visitor interested. Sure, if they don't necessarily like what they see in those few seconds they might investigate your site further, but odds on they won't stay long if the next page also presents them with something they don't like.

Because I use a dial-up connection, I can't remember how many times I could not be bothered waiting to see a fancy flash intro page. This means if you don't provide a way to bypass the intro that is external to the flash file, I'm gone. Give me a quick option to bypass the intro and chances are I will investigate further.

Remember, first impressions count.

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hmm.. In judging I don't think that's good judge if he makes in 1/20 of a second an vote.. because he will just click on vote and that's all :S.. If I vote I usally look at design coding.. and stuff they have in the website.. so it isn't so fast to judge..

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