A recent study of 20 participants aged 22 to 29 (each accessing the Internet on average at least 2 hours a day, and each having at least four years of prior Internet experience) yielded 57 different variables that affect user judgments of a Web page, plus 10 clusters grouping the 57 variables that reflect the underlying mental structure of the user preferences.
In English:
If you want to design your website to have the greatest impact among twenty-somethings, then you might want to consider the following factors, as they reveal some interesting website surfing “facts” and variables that affect a user’s experience. Even if 22-29 isn’t your target market, chances are many of the variables would be ranked similarly by other age brackets as well.
User Preferences That Affect One’s Judgment Of A Website
#1 Information Layout
#2 Server Response Times
#3 Time to Load
#4 Download Time
#5 Speed
#6 Visual Groups
#7 Security
#8 Credible and Original Information
#9 Location of Information
#10 Privacy
#11 System Independent
#12 Timely Information
#13 Browser Independent
#14 Wait-Time Feedback
#15 Simple Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)
#16 Updated Regularly
#17 Interactive
#18 Provide Search
#19 Grouping and Subheadings
#20 Length of an Article
#21 Minimized Scrolling
#22 Graphic File Size
#23 Innovative
#24 Clear Exits
#25 Navigation Support
#26 Font Size
#27 Simple Headlines and/or Titles
#28 Position in the Screen
#29 Printable Contents
#30 Back Button
#31 Free Service
#32 Simple Images
#33 Graphics
#34 Visual Design Cues
#35 Background Images
#36 Pictures Instead of Description
#37 Drop Down Menus
#38 Non-Frames
#39 Accurate Plain-Language Error Messages
#40 Frames
#41 Games
#42 Opening of New Browser Window
#43 Entertainment
#44 Standard Colors for Links
#45 Logo
#46 Animations
#47 Accessible for Users with Disabilities
#48 Graphics for Graphics and Text for Text
#49 Multiple Colors
#50 3-D Images
#51 Icons
#52 Banners
#53 Coordinated Audio and Video
#54 Movies
#55 Sudden Pop-Up Windows
#56 Songs
#57 Advertisements
There are other valuable lessons to be learned from A recent this study as well.
And, to top it all off, check out this cool visual depicting an Internet users’ typical eye movements across a website’s homepage. Woah!
