\u201cWe know first impressions are very important,\u201d says Dr. Hong Sheng, assistant professor of business and information technology at Missouri S&T. \u201cAs more people use the Internet to search for information, a user\u2019s first impressions of a website can determine whether that user forms a favorable or unfavorable view of that organization.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheng\u2019s research with Sirjana Dahal, who received her graduate degree from Missouri S&T last December, could also help web designers understand which elements of a website\u2019s design are most important for users.<\/p>\n For their research, Sheng and Dahal enlisted 20 Missouri S&T students to view screenshots, or static images, of the main websites from 25 law schools in the U.S. The researchers chose law schools because that degree is not offered at Missouri S&T, so students would not compare those degree programs with one offered at their own campus.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to show them sites that were relevant to them but not familiar to them,\u201d says Sheng, whose research specialty is human-computer interaction.<\/p>\n Using eye-tracking software and an infrared camera in Missouri S&T\u2019s Laboratory for Information Technology Evaluation, the researchers monitored students\u2019 eye movements as they scanned the web pages. The researchers then analyzed the eye-tracking data to determine how long it took for the students to focus on specific sections of a page \u2013 such as the menu, logo, images and social media icons \u2013 before they moved on to another section.<\/p>\n Sheng and Dahal found that their subjects spent about 2.6 seconds scanning a website before focusing on a particular section. They spent an average of 180 milliseconds focusing, or \u201cfixating,\u201d on one particular section before moving on.<\/p>\n After each viewing of a website, Sheng and Dahal asked students to rate sites based on aesthetics, visual appeal and other design factors.<\/p>\n \u201cThe longer the participants stayed on the page, the more favorable their impressions were,\u201d Sheng says. \u201cFirst impressions are important for keeping people on pages.\u201d<\/p>\n Sixteen of the 25 websites reviewed in the study were considered favorable by the subjects, Sheng says.<\/p>\n Through this research, Sheng and Dahal found that seven sections of the reviewed websites attracted the most interest from users. The participants spent an average of 20 seconds on each website.<\/p>\n The website sections that drew the most interest from viewers were as follows:<\/p>\n \u2022 The institution\u2019s logo. Users spent about 6.48 seconds focused on this area before moving on.<\/p>\n \u2022 The main navigation menu. Almost as popular as the logo, subjects spent an average of 6.44 seconds viewing the menu.<\/p>\n \u2022 The search box, where users focused for just over 6 seconds.<\/p>\n \u2022 Social networking links to sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Users spent about 5.95 seconds viewing these areas.<\/p>\n \u2022 The site\u2019s main image, where users\u2019 eyes fixated for an average of 5.94 seconds.<\/p>\n \u2022 The site\u2019s written content, where users spent about 5.59 seconds.<\/p>\n \u2022 The bottom of a website, where users spent about 5.25 seconds.<\/p>\n Sheng notes that use of social media links may be of particular interest for college students, more so than for the general population.<\/p>\n Although use of color was not part of the eye-tracking study, participants indicated that it did influence their impressions of websites. \u201cParticipants recommended the main color and background color be pleasant and attractive, and the contrast of the text color should be such that it is easier to read,\u201d Dahal wrote in her master\u2019s thesis, titled \u201cEyes Don\u2019t Lie: Understanding Users\u2019 First Impressions on Website Design Using Eye Tracking.\u201d<\/p>\n The use of images was also an important factor in web design, the subjects of the study said. \u201cYou must choose your main picture very carefully,\u201d Sheng says. \u201cAn inappropriate image can lead to an unfavorable response from viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers showed students screenshots of the websites, rather than the actual sites, because website download speed, mouse movement and other factors can influence how people interact with websites. In addition, the S&T students were also under no time constraints. The students could view the pages for as long as they wished to form an impression. \u201cTime constraints can affect user behavior,\u201d Sheng says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Missouri University of Science and Technology via Newswise: When viewing a website, it takes users less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression, according to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[96,286,364,12,235],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions\/1432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/ComputerUser.jpg\" "\\"computer")
When viewing a website, it takes users less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression<\/strong>, according to recent eye-tracking research conducted at Missouri University of Science and Technology. But it takes a little longer \u2013 about 2.6 seconds \u2013 for a user\u2019s eyes to land on that area of a website that most influences their first impression<\/strong>.<\/p>\n