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Snap Decisions

Nature.com has a an article about the nearly instantaneous judgments people make when visiting web sites. Here are some of the most interesting points in the article:
  1. Lasting impressions of your site come within the first 50 milliseconds of viewing it.
  2. 60% of traffic to commercial web sites comes from search engines.
  3. 'Ccognitive bias' plays a role in the lasting impact from initial impressions; visitors continue to use a web site to "prove" to themselves that their initial decision was right.
  4. To be most effective, your web site should convey information in the simplest, quickest way possible.
  5. A couple of corporate web site guidelines: put your company logo on the top right and a search box on the top left.
A product manager can help ensure that your marcom team (or outside web designers) take these lessons into consideration.

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