Aesthetics and Web Design

Sholom Sandalow, Thursday, July 2, 2009 @ 10:51 am

Patrick Lynch over at A list apart has just written a great article about the role of aesthetics in web design.  In it, he specifically deals with the question of how much of a role visual aesthetic design should play in the design of web sites.  To answer the question, he delves into the somewhat controversial notion of visual decision making--the idea that aesthetics can help users in their decision making and aid in general website usability.

The article is written in response to assertions made by one Jakob Nielsson, who, citing numerous eye tracking studies that his team has performed over the years, concludes that any images, or other elements on a web page that are not integral to the site's content or function are routinely ignored, and hence superfluous or even distracting.

But the author says no.  Aesthetic elements on websites, while not recognized as helpful in eye tracking studies, do perform a vital role in website usability.  Mr. Lynch cites the work of early 20th century Gestalt psychologists that have proven that the brain responds to images in milliseconds.  And more recent studies of web sites suggest that users make visual impressions of pages in less than 1/20 of a second--before eye tracking movements begin--and that those impressions more or less stay through the length of the visit.

He goes on from there about why "attractive things work better", describing Don Norman's three levels of human psychological processing (Visceral, Behavioral and Reflective), and why they all work together to create an impression of a product like a website.

Read the full article over here.

Related posts:

1. Book recommendation: Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks by Wroblewski
2. 2 approaches to design…
3. Developing Good Wireframes Ahead of Visual Design
4. Data Driven Design and the Culture at Google
5. Visual Design as a Balancing Act

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1. 

   The 1/20 of a second study is highly dubious, or at least the conclusion they made. Alas, the meme has been spread far and wide.

   What they did was present the web page for 50 milliseconds and then blank the screen.

   That left a trace of the image in the visual buffer of the brain and allowed subsequent processing. The feedback they got from users came way after 50 milliseconds and after significantly more visual processing.

   I agree in general with all you say here, but that study is the grossest perversion of scientific results around usability in the last decade.

   I wrote more about the fallacy of this conclusion at:
   http://surfmind.com/muzings/?p=81

   Comment by AndyEd, Thursday, July 2, 2009 @ 11:04 am

2. 

   Really the images play a great role towards aesthetic look of the web page.

   Comment by hanna, Saturday, July 4, 2009 @ 10:54 am

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