How critical is it to measure the first impression on your website

It is said that the first impression is the final one. As it is a perfect saying for humans, it's equally valid for a website. If the first impression is not effective, visitors will never give a second chance to impress them. Therefore, it is vital to think about how to improve the trust and confidence of the users in the initial seconds they land on the webpage.

As per several studies, five seconds are long enough for a good design to communicate its primary message. It is also found that users who make their first click on the right place will complete their desired task 87% of the time, whereas the success rate is only 46% for those who click incorrectly. But how can you measure the users’ impression on your website?

Effective ways to improve the first impression

According to research, visitors take only five seconds to decide whether to stay on the website or jump to another one. Therefore, it is beneficial to implement some simple effective ways to improve the visitors’ first impression, for example:

• Ensure that the website loading speed is fast enough
• Use amazing introductory videos to snatch the attention of the visitors
• Use a heat map tool to understand the movement of visitors’ eye
• Highlight the most engaging contents to attract the visitors
• Ensure that the website is mobile-friendly

How to measure the first impression on your website?

The first virtual impression can make or break the deal. And there are only a few seconds to impress the website’s visitors.

• Most importantly, use first-click testing to understand the user-friendliness of the website
• Perform Five-second test to know the user’s understanding and impression of the website

What is Five-second test?

With the increasing trend of checking many websites simultaneously, the importance of simple but attractive design is growing significantly. Visitors get attracted or distracted by any website within the first five seconds.  

Five-second test is used to understand whether the website can effectively communicate its objective clearly to the visitors. It helps to know how much information the user can gather about the business and what they think about the design after viewing it for the first five seconds.

In these tests, the participants get five seconds to view the interface, and after that, they are asked some questions about the webpage or interface. There are some specific formats to capture the answers, which helps improve the website's design, layout, and other aspects.

What is first-click testing, and why is it important?

First click testing is a process to understand the user-friendliness of the website. The users’ eyes focus on particular areas while running through the website. And those are the areas where significant efforts should be made to create a superb first impression. This method helps measure the easiness of a website, app, or design. Participants of this test are asked to perform a task and identify how easily they can complete it. 

First click testing aims to simplify the user interaction, try to understand the user’s intention, and find out the possible hindrance. It offers several advantages like:

• First-click tests are a simple and quick way to understand the effective functionality of the user interface. This testing methodology is relatively inexpensive and helps improve the product's user experience.
• Obtain early feedback to improve your future design or better shape your next research activities.
• You can test a wireframe or many versions of an interface (whether it is a web page or not).
• When users get the first click correct, they’re 2–3 times more likely to complete the entire task than if their first click is incorrect.

Tips for performing an efficient first click testing

• Recruitment: Pick the participants who represent the target audience.
• Task: Provide them with a task to perform or a problem to solve and let them do that by themselves.
• Planning: Prepare documentation for the perfect way and the best possible way to complete the tasks.
• Performance: Capture the participants' performance, what the difficulties are, how much time is required to get the first impression, and how long it takes to complete the tasks.
• Perception: Interact with the participants and understand their confidence and difficulty levels
• Testing tools: Record the sessions using testing tools and analyze the data with heatmaps and other methodologies to extract a meaningful report.

We have prepared an example for you. A UX Researcher and our community performed a First Click Test on six major Swiss Banks. You can download the slides and the webinar here below.