Design Matters, A Lot.

(I’m a little late on this one but I wanted to check the studies out for myself before commenting.)

Sean Carton on the recent study by Carleton University about Web site aestheitcs.

Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa recently discovered that users make judgments about Web site design in as few as 50 milliseconds (a mere 1/20th of a second!). This judgment is an emotional reaction based on pure aesthetics and has nothing to do with usability.

A study by Questus confirmed the results.

I still have questions about the methodology and sample size for the study, but this is one of those things that “seems” to be true. (Seems is a dangerous word).

Most usability experts will tell you that Web browsing habits are idiosyncratic and it is difficult to create hard and fast guidelines for this medium; but nonetheless, I think it is safe to say that DESIGN MATTERS,. A LOT, when it comes to the success of your Web presence.

Carleton University, Usability, Aesthetics, Design, Study, Questus

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 21st, 2006 at 10:32 amand is filed under Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Design Matters, A Lot.”

adam said on: January 26th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
I think the funny thing about this is that I’ve seen some ugly sites that were successful and some beautiful sites that bit the dust. There is not silver bullet, but it’s nice to have an edge over the competition. If design does that, and it does, all the better.