Attention, Conceptual Design, Contributor, Interaction Design, Interface Design

Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye

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Article: Hopkin, M. (2006). “Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye.” Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved 13 January, 2006. http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060109/full/news060109-13.html Researchers in Canada discovered that most of the web users are able to make decisions about the websites within the first twenty seconds of their visit, and the impression they receive during this twenty seconds has a lasting effect on their opinions. This effect is known to psychologists as the ‘halo effect’ and if the users find the site to be attractive, they are more likely to ignore its minor flaws and speak favorably of it and its content. According to the article, this is due to ‘cognitive bias’ as people like to be right about their opinions so they continue to re-visit the site to prove that they had made the right initial decision. In order to come up with a website that gives a good long lasting impression, the researcher suggests using not more than one image and one that is eye-catching, and the information to be accessible to the visitors in the quickest way possible. This is especially important as the article mentions 60% of traffic is directed from search engines such as Google, where…

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Attention, Conceptual Design, Contributor, Interaction Design, Interface Design, Perception, Users

Web Site Design: Are We Doing It Right?

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Article: Cliff, A. (2000). “Web Site Design: Are We Doing It Right?” Retrieved 23 May, 2000. http://www.clickz.com/cgi-bin/gt/en/pm/pm.html?article=1757 In order to understand how people see and obtain information from websites, the Poynter Institute conducted an eye-tracking study that measured in which order people see the elements on a page, how long the eyes stayed focused on each element and how text and graphics links were used to navigate through the site. The study was conducted using news websites and the results were surprising. The findings showed that the readers were more attracted to text than graphics, images and photos. This is contrary to the findings from the study conducted before on newspapers where the readers were first attracted to the photos on a page, then headlines, then text. Web designers have taken the approach to create sites that would look similar to print materials for brand consistency, however, this tells us that the process of obtaining information from the web is different than that of reading print materials, and applying the same techniques as creating print materials in creating websites should be reconsidered. The results also showed that since the graphics were not getting much attention, the banner ads would also…

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