You only have 1/2 second, so fast the customers will leave your website
Read about how thoughts are illusions based on assumptions, guesses and suppositions. Your website has only a half second !!! to make a good impression. Consumers never go back to any website when an unconsciously given NO. That is why web owners have to be responsible for the information given here.
Brain research shows how consumers react
The consumer who surfs take fast decisions about the quality of a website, say researchers at Carleton University in Canada. The research team, with Professor Gitte Lindgaard in the lead, has researched how the visitor takes a decision on the content and if the visitor wishes to continue just by skimming the front page of less than 1 second. Actually 50 milliseconds.
It comes as a surprise since until now many assume that web surfers would use at least 10 times longer to assess the content of a web site. But the fact is that overview, design and value is decided in 50 milliseconds according to a new study which is published in the recognised “Journal Behaviour & Information Technology”
In the test series, the research team identified a number of websites that were shown in 50 milliseconds. Then they asked the participants to assess the sites’ aesthetic appeal or what we in Denmark call for visual identity.
Then the participants were asked to investigate the web rather thoroughly and then make a new assessment. The two assessment categories, the quick glance and the detailed study assessment were similar, the study showed.
Professor Gitte Lindgaard says that unless the first impression is favourable, the visitor leaves the web site before they know about the sites offer more than the competition.
Under the Lindgaard team, they found out what we already know. It is for the first impression that will be the last and the report argues that this first quick impression persists because of the psychological know the “Halo Effect” which refers to the fact that a person’s first impression lead to hasty decisions.
We evaluate a persons sex potential, an offer, a business proposal or a website in 1/2 second and remember this choice in our unconsciousness
An effect known from numerous psychological research teams reports, explores the meeting between people, assessing the design and evaluation of the actions, the attitude and behaviour of the consideration have to be found a place in few seconds, at the best = slowest.
Research also shows that visitors have a positive attitude if a web site is designed nicely and that this positive attitude also has an impact on what the person feels on the other side of the web site and that this positive attitude makes an impact by reading the content.
Psychological Visual Identity is based on knowledge of the mind, emotions and thought processes.
We have millions of years of biological heritage inside us. The ability to remember millions of faces is used to make quick decisions. Enemy or Friend decisions are made, and will never change, once a consumer takes a decision about your website. That is why scrolling to get info is a dangerous path to take. Simplicity is the key and correct UX design has to be in place. In Denmark, it is an education also. It is called Service Design.
Psychology in Design
Director Michael Rasmussen Valiantin from AGILUDIKLING.DK says: “When we create a corporate design, web sites and visual identities, we use the knowledge from the psychological research over the last 100 years. This research suggests that the user take decisions much faster than assumed.”
It is based on the research in the fields of biological, psychological and sociology areas. The research goes hand in hand in these 3 different areas. It is a knowledge that few agencies possess and now it turns out that this knowledge creates customer sales and loyal customers.
In many cases, we see experimental subjects also confirm this in behavioural neuroscience experiments. Behavioural neuroscience shows us that humans (and animals) share biological and behavioural similarities also known as Biopsychology. The ability to remembering faces is NOW used to remember website from pages.
As a result, you can say that behavioural neuroscience is closely connected with the following university fields:
- psychology and included are the fields of comparative psychology and evolutionary psychology
- biology including evolutionary biology and neurobiology
- sociology
Psychology and Behavioral neuroscience also have paradigmatic and methodological similarities to neuropsychology. Synonyms for behavioural neuroscience include biopsychology, biological psychology, and psychobiology.
Often smart Flash design moving pictures with music is the giving that the customer is leaving a website with the unconscious design, never to come back. Most studies over the last 10 years show clearly that the web sites which concentrate on ease of use (ONLY ONE MENU), content and relevance are winners. Better more text and fewer graphics, and no parallax in order for you to keep the visitor longer on your website. And this is also what the search engines like Google rewards.
Service Design has a big impact. Actually we are glad FLASH is dead as there is no need for FLASH anymore. In the Apple world who stands for 64% of mobile devices and 54% of PC’s Apple has decided not to support Flash.
Another fact is also that feelings and thoughts are not rational. From the psychological research, we see that clinical research facts come in hand when we talk about perception and consciousness of the user.
Our mind is 98% unconsciousness and takes many decisions we do not know anything about
Since Freud and Jung the creator of modern Psychology, it has been like this. We as humans, do not know that we unconscious 98% of the time. This little known fact is that we biology by design, are living with a 98% unconscious of the 100% total human consciousness. These 98% remains the same the whole life. Only access times are getting slower by age.
How we all act are created purely by biological and social heritage. Similarly, we know that most feelings and thoughts are not rational. In fact, 80% of our thoughts and feelings are not in integrity with reality and that means, in other words, that we as consumers, are not living in the real world, but in the perception of it. It also can be called the illusion of the consumer making choices based on a present consciousness where the consumer has a piece of knowledge about he is aware.
As humans and consumers, we can develop Attention on the Attention which leads to Awareness of the Awareness.
Also, opinions, belief, attitudes, norms, likes and dislikes are created from ideas derived from some decisions that are maintained, but not in integrity with the reality. Popular said your life assumptions and guesses, many people will continue to play until they die, even if they are not right.
Within the advertising industry, it is only in recent years, that psychologists and psychological knowledge are used to create the whole visual identity for a customer.
New studies show unambiguously that it is feelings based on needs that create sales because consumers unknowingly will confirm its initial decision and most are loath to admit mistakes. We know from the research in forming relationships, marriages and dating culture.
Decisions are maintained, even if they are wrong, it is a sort of unconscious despite contrary, to facts or to show or know that you are wrong. The world exists only as a perception in our brains. The brain acts with only very few facts in relation to quantity dominant perceptions and opinions.
Which proof is available for the claims about the unconscious mind in this article
The unconscious mind or the unconscious is backed up by all university teachings, at least in all of the western world. The unconscious mind is like an automate flying pilot. You do not know it is going on, what are the mechanics of the wings and jet fuel, but you know you are flying when you choose to use your attention on it.
“All processes in your mind occur automatically. It is not available to introspection and it includes our whole perception and whole life including thought processes, memories, interests and motivations. It also controls the GAP. The GAP is Guessing, Assuming and Presumming abilities which are going on in the wild, in the unconscious mind. Including all the thoughts about your website.”
You can also say you just have to be aware, then there is no problem. But the problem is that all living humans including you and me, are constructed that way with a 98% unconsciousness mind. The fact is that your viewers also are constructed that way, then they view your website.
Under the surface of conscious awareness, most psychologists and brain researcher agree to that, as theorized to exert an impact on behaviour. Freud was not first here, as the philosopher Friedrich Schelling and also later in the UK, a poet named Samuel Taylor Coleridge is often cited to be the source on that perception which Dr Freud adapted.
Empirical evidence is undoubtedly represents the fact that unconscious mind is also affecting and controlling feelings, skills, reactions, normal and subliminal perceptions, desires, interests and as a whole controlling not just the mind, but also your with born willpower. That is the whole life you might say and I agree, it is close to that. Do we have free will?. Yes i think so, but again what are the underlying structure of decisions that support the idea, that all is fresh made decisions. It is indeed not.
To confirm themselves unconsciously gives the feeling that they are doing something right even though it is wrong.
By the examples of psychological, biological and sociality parallel science in the recent years, it is becoming increasingly clear that people like best to be right or do right actions. Therefore, a visitor will continue to use a web site, if there has been a prior positive attitude because by doing this, the visitor confirms its first decision was a good decision.
Source: Michael Rasmussen, Partner of www.Michael.dk and Innovation Support A/S, Denmark and Germany.
Because the consumer is ruled by this and by feelings, emotions and thoughts a consumer will always confirm its decision – this information is of value to agencies and web designers and support the fact that if one uses psychological marketing, psychological design and uses a psychological created visual identity, the result would be that the consumer continues to use a web site. You will not lose as many customers and the customers you have, you will keep.
Website Psychology and Service Design
Therefore, website owners can decide to use this information or not. A new word is to be learned to anyone who wanna sell anything. This knowledge lies with roots in sustained research and actual experience with psychological design. Anyone can benefit.
Together with our AI, ML and BI tools that follow consumer behaviour on a web site, this gives the optimal visual identity, ease of use, and especially the contents of the front pages and offers. Price is not enough anymore because there are too many focusing on the feeling of the website, as soon something is irritating the eye, like moving objects, IN A PLACE THAT SUPPOSE TO BE INFORMATIONAL, then you know that you have lost the battle of wanting the customer to stay longer. That is supported evidence in your log-analysis software. So the point here is your message is OK, don’t make it complicated to read it. most info can be given in 3 sentences, if you use 3 pages with parallax you already lost the reader… Check in the log.
“Buying and interest decisions are always: Irrational, Emotional and Instant. Your unconsciousness decides. Service Design, therefore, must be a psychological based with knowledge of visual identity and based by more text and fewer graphics is bound to be more successful than the most simple text representation”
Quote by Michael Rasmussen Valiantin, Partner of www.Michael.dk and Innovation Support A/S.
“Advertising wise, you can use this knowledge in its marketing and it’s easy to translate into reality with good results because consumers are actually ruled by the subconscious. From our experience with examples in Google AdWords text links and image banners, we know that correct sentences can be formed as equations and thus provide 20-35% higher click rate – and may, in consequence, mean the difference between failure and success with its visual identity and method.” Says Michael Rasmussen Valiantin who owns the company: WWW.MICHAEL.DK
If you are the one who wanna make 15 meters long Parallax website, then you are in fact creating obstacles for the visitor to find out what is going on. It is far better to be informational, than graphical, all analysis shows, why 1,5 cm with no graphics is better than 15 meters, whatever effect you might add. And please do not add moving things unless it is a video which is necessary to explain the product.
About the author: Michael Rasmussen Valiantin is a German/Danish Art Director who works as a consultant and designer for European enterprises and publishers.
May be reproduced 100% on websites with the LINK to WWW.MICHAEL.DK
AUTHOR: MICHAEL RASMUSSEN VALIANTIN
(C) (P) Copyright 2011 MICHAEL RASMUSSEN
