As a follow-up to Trey’s post on improving your website, one of today’s most popular stories in the blogosphere is the Nature article Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye. Specifically, a user gets his/her impression of the quality of your site in the first 50 milliseconds of viewing:

Lindgaard and her team presented volunteers with the briefest glimpses of web pages previously rated as being either easy on the eye or particularly jarring, and asked them to rate the websites on a sliding scale of visual appeal. Even though the images flashed up for just 50 milliseconds, roughly the duration of a single frame of standard television footage, their verdicts tallied well with judgements made after a longer period of scrutiny.

In the crowded and competitive world of the web, companies hoping to make millions from e-commerce should take notice, the researchers say. “Unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors,” Lindgaard warns.

The article also describes what research shows to be the ingredients of a good-looking website.