Every now and again, I hear someone say something like “no Emmanuel, the site doesn’t need to look good, it just needs to be easy to use”. I have seen very few sites that are, probably, able to get away with such a crime – top on my list, ironically is usability guru Jakob Nielsen’s Useit.com (you’re still the best, J).
People who say this lose sight of the fact that a Web site really is a piece of marketing tool (a big, online display ad, if you like). In this Web 2.0 age of savvy users, people (users) do judge the book by its cover. When someone lands on a site’s home page for the first time, they form their initial impression by the general look and feel. Even though they are not looking, yet they see images, colours, and in many cases are subconsciously already beginning to decide whether they want to be here or not.
