Users decide about your site in 50 milliseconds

A Canadian study has shown that internet users make up their mind about whether they like a website or not in a fraction of a second.

The research, published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology showed that the brain can make a decision about the quality of a page in just one 20th of a second, less than a 10th of the time that researchers had expected, and these first impressions have a lasting impact.

Volunteers in the study were shown brief glimpses of websites, lasting only 50 milliseconds, and were then asked to rate the websites in terms of how aesthetically pleasing they found them.

Surprisingly, the research team found that these 'quick' conclusions tallied very closely with opinions formed after the users had had much longer to examine the sites.

The researchers believe that a phenomenon known as the 'halo effect' is responsible for these quickly formed impressions lasting. If people have a positive impression of the way a website looks, these positive thoughts will influence the way the user sees the rest of the site, such as the website content.

Since people like to be right, they will carry on using the website that gave them a good first impression, and this will reinforce their belief that the intial decision was a good one.

Dr Gitte Lindgaard, lead researcher of the paper, said that companies should be aware of this.

"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," she warned.