So, this is how the article starts: “Internet users can give web sites a thumbs up or down in less than the blink of an eye, according to a study by Canadian researchers.”
The article titled, Web Sites Judged In A Blink, was posted on CNN.com yesterday.
The article is based on a study conducted in Ontario by Gitte Lindgaard that was published in Behaviour And Information Technology Journal.
The core result is that within one-twentieth of a second (which is about half the time it takes to blink) people make design judgments on a website that affect their overall experience.
So here’s the big question: why should the web be different than anything else in life? I’m not saying this is not an important study. I’m saying that human beings do this with everything – from how we look in the morning to how we judge every book by its cover.
Here’s the bad part: the study could not demonstrate how to pull a “positive reaction from users,” said Lindgaard. “When we looked at the Web sites that we tested, there is really nothing there that tells us what leads to dislike or like.”
OK, because the answer to that question is gold.
Now, we have a new study telling us what we’ve know about humans forever, it’s just that now we can relate that same information to how we experience websites.
You can read the full article here: Web Sites Judged In A Blink – CNN.com.
Please let me know if you think I’m missing something here. It could be the weather that is making me this bitter.