A study done recently on the reactions of web surfers to web pages reveals that visitors decide whether a site is worth looking at or not within milliseconds of seeing the page load. This, of course, is only a component of whether visitors decide to stay on a particular web site. Load times and quality of content still matter, but this is a suitable red flag to web designers, web developers, and graphics designers alike: visuals matter more than you might think.

It’s a little astounding that it took so long for this fact to come to light. It’s well-known in the Web world that you have somewhere around 5 seconds to grab a user’s attention once they arrive on a page, and this discovery doesn’t change that. Certainly, it’s possible for a page to be so monstrously hideous that a user must immediately cringe and recoil; we’ve known that too. Intuitively, we’ve also known that something that doesn’t look clean or professionally done is less likely to sell and be convincing than something that has a great deal of monetary investment and thought. From the physical marketing world, all this is one great big "well, duh"; the realization that visuals control not only impact but level of interest is something that has held in print media for a very long time.

So why does this come as news to web designers?

It indicates an evolution of the web. Whereas before, where we were merely concerned with the code, making valid and correct HTML that is readable across all browsers; where we prized content just as much as design; where we were sometimes more interested in simply providing the information quickly over the quality of the presentation; now, we have a kick upside the head. Again, "well, duh" – or is it? What does this have to say for beginning web designers just stepping into the world of online design? For that matter, what does it tell people like me who are good at layout, content management, and backend programming, but are absolutely clueless when it comes to graphics?

My personal lesson from this is a validation of my personal design philosophy: simple and clean. The key is to strike a balance between appropriate visuals and the information presented. Sometimes, this can mean very minimalistic approaches (I give the Teen Tutoring Project as one of my personal design examples). On the other hand, this can mean something very straightforward, but imbued with a subtle message that is hidden within the layout and design itself. That philosophy has held across all my clients. I tend to match with clients that share this philosophy, but that’s another article.

In the long run, having this information can only be beneficial, but we have to decide whether this is simply one more fact to intimidate web designers into using flashier technologies (no pun intended) or whether this is a broader lesson: one of balance and a warning not to oversell the message through visual impact.

To me, that’s not just another "well, duh".