The 7 Most Important Things on Your Website
20.05.12
You've got 2.6 seconds to make that important first impression on your website visitors. That's how long it takes them to settle on the most captivating element of your site, according to Missouri University of Science and Technology researchers who used eye-tracking software.
Their findings create a road map for determining how your website design will influence potential consumers.
"We know first impressions are very important," said Hong Sheng, an assistant professor of business and information technology at Missouri S&T. "As more people use the Internet to search for information, a user's first impressions of a website can determine whether that user forms a favorable or unfavorable view of that organization."
Sheng and Sirjana Dahal, a graduate degree holder at the Rolla, Mo., school, used an infrared camera and eye-tracking software in the school's Laboratory for Information Technology Evaluation to monitor the eye movements of students as they scanned Web pages. The researchers then analyzed the data to determine how long students focused on specific sections of a page – such as the menu, logo, images and social media icons – before they moved on to other sections.
Source: BusinessNewsDaily
