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Don't Blink Dr.
Gitte Lindgaard recently completed a study which measured the
amount of time it took for people to make a decisive judgment.
Amazing as it may seem, most people can make a decision in
about one-twentieth of a second, or 50 milliseconds.
The study was based on first impressions,
like the first impression a visitor has when arriving at your
website. People in the study made a judgment regarding the
visual appeal of a website in about half a blink.
The study which took place at Carleton
University in Ottowa, determined that whether the first
impression is positive or negative can influence all
subsequent behavior. In other words, how a person feels about
or judges your website in the first 50 milliseconds can
outweigh factors such as usability, navigation and even
content.
"Even if a website is highly usable and
provides very useful information presented in a logical
arrangement, this may fail to impress a user whose first
impression of the site was negative," said Lindgaard, who
was surprised to find it possible that people saw anything at
all in less than 500 milliseconds.
The opposite can be true as well, a positive
first impression can help visitors ignore small navigation and
layout issues. However, even a beautiful site can't compensate
for poor content, horrible navigation or a hideous layout.
The researchers also believe that these
immediate impressions last because of what is known to
psychologists as the "halo effect".
If people believe a website looks good, this
positive quality will affect the visitors impression of the
rest of the site as well, visitors may take a more positive
view of the websites content or usability.
Researchers also found that these "first
impressions" matched closely with opinions of the websites
that had been made after much longer scrutiny.
Oddly enough, this study said nothing about
the load time of a website although other studies show the
importance of a site that loads quickly.
It seems that a balance between an
aesthetically pleasing website and one that functions well
holds the most promise. Is this really any different from what
we thought before? Probably not, but things can change in the
blink of an eye. |
Why Swing Lines?
A new look, well more like a slight
change. Our newsletter header has changed a few times over the
years but the child on a swing has been a main-stay. Many of
you may not realize that the little child on the swing is our
daughter, we created a vector image of a photo taken when she
was 3-4 years old. We were inspired by the sight of our
youngest child and only daughter swinging freely through the
air, giggling and using her imagination to transform in to a
bird, an airplane, a superhero and whatever else her young
mind could imagine.
This made us think about how large a role
imagination plays in our business, and over the years the
swing has become our logo and a major part of our brand
identity. It also reminds us that using your imagination is
fun even if you are working.
Newton's Pendulum was added to demonstrate
momentum, the momentum marketing your website creates. If you
have ever seen one of these things on someone's desk you
already know that if one ball is lifted and strikes the
others, one ball will fly up from the other side as the others
stay still. Two balls dropped, causes two balls to fly up on
the other side and yet the others stay still.
We believe this is a great analogy for
website marketing, the more you put in to marketing your
website the more you will get out of it. This can be done
without changing everything that you are currently doing to
market your business. Simply add your website address to
current promotions and let your website help you expand your
market.
PPP Design Adds
Print Services
After several requests, we have decided to
add print services to help you promote your brand. Custom
design and development of your art work allows us to maintain
a consistent look for your brand identity. Business Cards,
Brochures, Post Cards and Letterhead are now available at
competitive prices.
PPP Design Print Services |
