Looks like first impressions really do matter, as far as website design goes. Nature is running an article about research done by a Canadian researcher; conclusion is that in about 1/50th of a second, you've made up your mind about liking the site or not.
The phenomenon pervades our society; even doctors have been shown to follow their initial hunches, Lindgaard says, relying heavily on a patient's most immediately obvious symptom when making a diagnosis. "It's awfully scary stuff, but the tendency to jump to conclusions is far more widespread than we realize," she says.
Update: Here's an interesting counterpoint to the above report:
From what I can tell, the researchers didn't find any actual evidence that users will leave a site after 50 milliseconds if they find a site visually unappealing. The problem with Lindgaard's conclusions is that the research didn't study how users behave when they're trying to accomplish their tasks.
For example, CraigsList is a site that has tested very well with our users. Users loved the site. Why? Not because the site was visually appealing. CraigsList succeeded because the content surpassed their users' expectations. The site makes its users happy despite what some might consider poor aesthetics. And none of the users left the site because of a bad design.Â
The full counterpoint here.
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Google’s Translation from Italian here
Yeah, I’d be interested in testing that theory myself. 50ms is very quick, though I believe you can perceive something in that time frame. If you visit a site for a particular intent, like Craigslist, you may not care about the design…just the functionality.
Brad