Length of time it takes for a user to sum up your site

[The_Hat]

I remember there was once an article somewhere I read that gave the amount of time on average it took for the user to make their first impression of your site and how hard it was to overcome that initial first impression... but I can't seem to find that article on the net anywhere... anybody else remember seeing that?

[MatthewHSE]

I know what you're talking about, but unfortunately I don't know where it was. If I recall, the amount of time was shockingly short, as in milliseconds. Although I might be mixing up different articles...

[celgins]

There have been many technical articles citing user satisfaction with websites.

One of the biggest things is page load time. If your page takes forever to load, many users won't be around to even form a first impression.

Once they are able to access the site, many will form an opinion within a couple of seconds.

Don't know how scientific this type of data may be, but I think the small timeframe (2-7 seconds) is true.

[davelms]

[news.bbc.co.uk...]

Researchers found that the brain makes decisions in just a 20th of a second of viewing a webpage.

[The_Hat]

davelms: has got it... I think that was the very article I remember... thanks a bunch.... I just knew somebody here would remember what I was talking about just because of the shock that article brought..

[monkeythumpa]

We bring in users and time them to see how long to find what they are looking for. Typically if it takes them more than 5 seconds or they have to scroll, the back button starts calling their name.

[The_Hat]

I think this article speaks much more to their initial gut reaction to the site..before they even set about to look for what they were looking for... The amount of time they give the site before they think "oooooo" or "eeewwwww"... *grin*