First impressions: How to increase the effectiveness of a web site

By Paul Hudson and Fiona Mathieson

First impressions count. First impressions give consumers their first clear idea about what a company is like: are they professional? amateurs? modern? traditional? trustworthy? And so on. And the company Web site must reflect this 24 hours a day. Is visual attractiveness therefore the most important aspect of web site design?

So not surprisingly, the subject of Web design – both its expectation and the actual perception – has been a very serious issue for companies seeking a presence online. But despite the wealth of design opportunities available, for nearly all the websites Teleconomy has researched, customer’s expectations of the visual attractiveness prove quite low. On a ratings scale of 1 to 9, customer expectations of visual attractiveness have an average rating of 5.73, the least important attribute measured.

Research has aided us in identifying several factors that contribute to the site appearing ‘visually attractive’ to the user. The screen must appear to be 'uncluttered', with the information presented in an ordered format, perhaps separated by lines or boxes, and the appearance should remain constant throughout.The first impression is also improved if the design (colour etc.) supports any pre-existing brand image. This also provides first time visitors with a sense of familiarity.

The overall visual style acts as an indicator and creates the perception of how quick and easy the site would be to navigate to complete their intended purpose, and its importance decreases with the number of return visits. And once an individual begins to carry out their task within a site they are then concerned less with the perception of easy navigation, and more with the actual ease of navigation.

Teleconomy research shows that the ease of navigation is at least 40% more important to users than the site’s visual attractiveness. Unfortunately, however, all sites we have measured fall short of expectations for speed and ease, with scores falling by 18% once people browse the site. And the websites traditionally regarded as defining best practice are not necessarily the most appealing to look at.

In order to improve the user experience, it is essential to understand user behaviours more fundamentally. This can be done by understanding the different needs and purposes for visiting a website – and these are more varied than the reasons for walking into a physical shop. People could be doing background research on prices, looking for a speedy shopping solution for an item they know about, seeking more information about the company, logging into a private zone of the site, and so on. For example, our survey of financial websites found that existing customers were keen to service their account and viewed advertising for unrelated products and services as an irritating distraction. First-time users, on the other hand were more interested in the advertising for general information gathering.

The key to improving the experience and satisfaction with a web site is less about it being visually attractive, and more about conceptually understanding the different needs and purposes of the user groups, responding to this by adjusting the layout and design of the site accordingly.

Teleconomy have developed a very sophisticated and entirely customer focused web measurement and performance benchmarking methodology for a number of sectors.

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