First Impression of Visual Appeal

First Impression of Visual Appeal

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

A first impression of visual appeal is a judgement of how appealing a web page looks, formed within a fraction of a second. Gitte Lindgaard and colleagues reported in 2006 that appeal ratings given after very short exposures were highly correlated with ratings given after longer ones.

What it is

A first impression of visual appeal is a judgement of how appealing a web page looks, formed within a fraction of a second. Gitte Lindgaard and colleagues report three studies in which ratings of homepage appeal given after short exposures were highly correlated with ratings from longer exposures, including 50 milliseconds, and conclude that visual appeal can be assessed that quickly.

The same stimuli were also used to test whether the first impression reflects a mere exposure effect.

In effect

The Why We Project uses the finding in its article on branding agencies in Dubai, where it supports the point that the visual design of the first screen carries real weight.

What it does not say

The finding comes from the study named on this page and describes a pattern in that sample. It does not show that the pattern holds for every person, product or market, and it does not tell a brand what to do on its own. It is one input to a decision, to be weighed with other evidence.

Sources

  1. Lindgaard and colleagues, Attention web designers: You have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression!, Behaviour and Information Technology 25(2), 2006. https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290500330448