[Sigia-l] All it takes is 50 milliseconds

[Listera]

Why Design is crucial:

We all know that first impressions count, but this study shows that the
brain can make flash judgements almost as fast as the eye can take in the
information. The discovery came as a surprise to some experts. "My
colleagues believed it would be impossible to really see anything in less
than 500 milliseconds," says Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in
Ottawa, who has published the research in the journal Behaviour and
Information Technology1. Instead they found that impressions were made in
the first 50 milliseconds of viewing.

In the crowded and competitive world of the web, companies hoping to make
millions from e-commerce should take notice, the researchers say. "Unless
the first impression is favourable, visitors will be out of your site before
they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors,"
Lindgaard warns.

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.

This is because of 'cognitive bias', Lindgaard explains. People enjoy being
right, so continuing to use a website that gave a good first impression
helps to 'prove' to themselves that they made a good initial decision. 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.

Nature: Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye
<http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060109/full/060109-13.html>

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Ziya

"Do first things first, and second things not at all."