visual design matters

first impressions

Web users form first impressions of web pages in as little as 50 milliseconds (1/20th of a second) Gitte Lindgaard; Gary Fernandes, Cathy Dudek and J Brown
"Attention Web Designers"
Behaviour & Information Technology, 2006

attractive works better

Aesthetically pleasing designs are often perceived as being easier to use.
Stephen P. Anderson
Mental Note Cards

credibility

People make initial assessments of the credibility of computing technology based on firsthand inspection of surface traits like layout.
B. J. Fogg
Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do

trust

People use look and feel as their first indicator of trust.
Susan M. Weinschenk
100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

FREE Desirability Testing based on the Reaction Card Method

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The Microsoft Reaction Card method was developed in 2002 by Joey Benedek and Trish Miner in their paper Measuring Desirability: New Methods for Evaluating Desirability in a Usability Lab Setting. It is used to check the emotional response of a design or product and is commonly used in the field of software design.

Benedek and Miner suggested presenting participants with a design and a set of 118 adjectives to describe their reactions (these adjectives represented a mix of descriptions that people may consider positive or negative). They would then ask participants to select the 3 to 5 words that they thought best described the design.

Mojoleaf uses a reduced number of words (77 of the 118 originally suggested), but retains the 60/40 split between positive and negative terms Benedek and Miner suggested and does not restrict the number of words that can be chosen.

Combining the output from multiple sessions, the Reaction Card method can be used to help make an informed decision about design direction and get a view as to whether the presented design options contain the characteristics the brand is trying to portray.

Why is it important?

Everything has a halo effect and those first impressions can impact a product’s perceived utility, usability, and credibility.

A negative first impression means that customers are more likely to find fault, even if a product’s overall usability is good and the product offers real value.

The issue with just asking people what they prefer as part of a usability test, for example, is that the response we are looking for from users is more emotional, it is less about users’ ability to accomplish tasks and more about their affective response to a given design and the Reaction Card method can do a much better job of informing and helping to achieve consensus on design decisions.

Conducting your own desirability testing

This section aims to set out some of the exercises you can use for collecting feedback on the desirability of visual design. Each method includes simple step-by-step instructions and a set of tips that I’ve picked up along the way.

Product Reaction Cards

Product Reaction Cards can be used to help gain feedback on the desirability of a design (this method is great for testing the creative direction of a project by conducting the exercise on mood boards).

1-6 participants

5-15 minutes

How to do it

Present your participants with the image or collection of images you would like feedback on and the list of 118 words. Give them a few moments to familiarize themselves before moving on.
Ask the participants to select the 3 to 5 words from the list of words that they feel best describe the design or collection of images they are viewing.

Tips

Personally I recommend writing each word on an A5 card and sticking them on the wall or on a separate whiteboard. I find that if the participants are on their feet and interacting as they go through the exercise, i.e. physically pulling the words from the wall, it makes it easier for them to collaborate.
Using Wordle is a great way to present your results in a graphical way and it's free.

You'll need

The image or images you want to test
A5 cards, use one card for each word (see "Tips")
Blu-Tack (or similar) to stick the cards to a wall

Emotion & Reaction Scaling

Emotion and Reaction Scaling focuses on identifying commonalities in design that provide the same emotional response, e.g. photos featuring close ups of people receiving an immediate positive response. This is done by using two sets of polar opposite words to create a matrix and asking participants to plot a collection of images on it's vertical and horizontal axis.

1-6 participants

Around 40 minutes

How to do it

Create a vertical and horizontal axis based on two sets of polar opposite words.
Hand the group an image and ask for their initial thoughts.
Ask them to come to a consensus and place the image on the matrix and explain their rationale. If there is disagreement, dig deeper to understand why opinions differ.
Repeat steps 1-3 until all of your images are on the matrix.
Once all images are on the matrix, ask the group how they would describe any clusters of images.

Tips

The most important data from this exercise is your discussion with participants to understand their reaction to an image (whether positive or negative), so make sure you take good notes or record the session.
If you're conducting the Emotion and Reaction Scaling exercise in a focus group setting with observers in a different room, be sure to give your observers a copy of the images being used and make sure you say which image is being passed to the participants as you do it so they can follow along.
If possible limit the number of images to 20, any more and the matrix can become too cluttered to see any groupings and the exercise can become tedious for the participants.

You'll need

White board or wall space where you can draw your matrix
Blu-Tack (or similar) so participants can stick the images on the matrix
Print outs of the images you would like to include in your test

Bi-Polar Emotional Response (BERT)

Bi-Polar Emotional Response Testing is a great way to gauge reactions to a visual design. Participants are presented with a collection of existing webpages/designs one at a time and asked to rate each one on a number of polar opposite scales.

1-6 participants

Around 2-3 minutes per design (excluding any discussion afterwards)

How to do it

Hand each participant a copy of your scales and give them time to familiarize themselves before showing them the design you want feedback on.
Show the participants the design and explain it's purpose, nothing in depth, just enough to give them an idea of what they're looking at and how they got to it. For example if you are showing a search results page, you might say "You've just conducted a search for [product], and are presented with this page". The reason for this is that opinions can change depending on the purpose of the design.
Ask the participants to complete their scales individually.
Once the scales have been completed and collected, ask the group to share their thoughts. This can give you additional insight into their choices and a view on why responses may differ.
Repeat steps 1-4 for each design you would like feedback on.
After the session, plot all of the participants responses on a single scale for each design to help identify any patterns.

Tips

If possible, limited the number of scales to 10. Anymore than this and completing them can become cumbersome.
Be aware of participants marking the middle of all scales for all designs, all of the time. If you want to force an opinion you can remove the neutral option and use a 4 or 6 point scale. Doing this means there is no middle/neutral option.
Make sure your scales have no obvious order and the order of the extremes vary so that you don't have all positive on one side and all negatives on the other. This is to try and prevent participants from blindly completing the scales.
Interpreting the results:
When ratings are concentrated down the middle, this usually means that there is indifference to the visual design. However, people may still like a site based on its functionality and what it does for them rather than how it looks.

If all responses are towards one end of the scale, this provides a strong indication that this view was shared across all participants.

When there is a wide range, there is a strong reaction that is inconsistent between participants. Their views vary and the way they feel about the look is very different.

You'll need

The designs you want to test either on paper or on screen. If you are using print outs it's worth making multiple copies and, if possible, printing out an enlarged copy
Stapler / paperclips for grouping all responses for a design
A hard surface for the participants to write on, such as a table or clipboard
Printouts of your scales, including spares
Enough pens/pencils for all your participants

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