Designing for First Impressions : How do visually salient elements influence first impressions of web pages?

Abstract

New online businesses emerge every day, contributing to an overflow of unknown vendors that rely solely on their online presence. As the number of unfamiliar online entities without any offline presence grows, there is a need to understand how visual web design decisions impact users’ impressions and the sense of trust. When there is no prior interaction with a web page, the user’s first impression has a significant impact. First impressions in the context of HCI are influenced by the visual design of a web page, which subsequently is influenced by viewing behavior and the saliency of design elements.

An online survey was executed to explore how visually salient design elements influence the user’s perception of appeal, trustworthiness, overall impression, and the prospect of further use. Participants viewed six different fictional web pages with an exposure time of four seconds. The results revealed that judgments of appeal do not affect perceptions of trustworthiness; however, an impact was seen on overall impression ratings and the prospect of further use. Repeated measures ANOVA’s for appeal ratings revealed highly statistically significant pairings between stimuli, indicating that differences in design significantly influenced ratings of appeal.

Conducted one-way ANOVA’s demonstrated that age or gender differences did not significantly impact how the participants rated the web pages. Additionally, the study’s results revealed that the lack of a visually significant element and a clear entry point does not generate indifferent results. In its entirety, the study confirms prior first impression research regarding the impact of visual appeal on first impressions and illustrates the importance of visual prototypicality and aesthetic treatment.