5 musts-to-pass-the-5-second-test

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The 5 Musts to Pass
The 5 Second Test

Bright Orange Thread | www.brightorangethread.com | info@brightorangethread.com | 302-250-2339 ©2014 Copyright. All rights reserved. Bright Orange Thread LLC. 2
The 5 Musts to Pass The 5 Second Test
62% of B2B home pages
fail to make a good first
impression.
The 5 Second Test will save your
page from becoming a statistic.
Surviving Snap Judgments
Web page visitors make snap judgements on whether to
stay or go. People don’t want to waste time navigating a
poorly designed, frustrating-to-use site. There are plenty of
other options they can check out from their search results.
If your webpage can survive the snap judgement, your
website has a chance to convert the lead.
Skip to more refreshingly honest comments
“Read for a bit more..
Short leash though.”
- subject commentary
Patience is Short
“I’d give it another couple of seconds,
but I’m not seeing the value prop.”
“After another 5 secs if I don’t find
my info, I’d close the window.”
62%

Inside You’ll Find:
Findings from The 5 Second Test....................................................4
5 Musts to Pass The 5 Second Test
Look the part...............................................................................................6
Clearly state what you do....................................................................7
Chunkify.........................................................................................................8
Avoid stock photos..................................................................................9
Be current................................................................................................... 10
Why The 5 Second Test
It’s hard to be objective about your own web page. You know yourself too well.
You helped create the site and you can’t possibly look at it for the first time ever
again! That’s why we created this quick test for the average‘Joe’(B2B prospect :-).
The 5 Second Test measures out which home pages survive the snap judgement,
and why. From data mining 2000+ responses, we have uncovered reasons why
people stay or leave.
About The 5 Second Test
The 5 Second Test makes a qualitative
assessment of whether a home or landing
page is sticky. Stickiness is anything about a
web site that encourages visitors to stay longer.
Subjects spent 5 seconds looking at each home
page, then answered 3 questions about relevance,
first impressions and stickiness. At least 2 of these 3
criteria must be met in order to pass the test.

Results from The 5 Second Test
We tested home pages of 37 B2B companies with annual revenue ranging
from $5 million to $100 million and tabulated 2220 independent responses
from test subjects. Here’s how their home pages are performing:
Is your first impression good or bad?
Only 38% of home pages made a good first impression.
Bad First Impressions indicate poor design.
Is this home page relevant to your search?
Relevance confirms the user has found the right content.
Subjects found 60% of home pages to be relevant.
Would you keep reading?
62% of home pages enticed subjects to keep reading.
No subject indicated they would keep reading if the home page made
a bad first impression AND was irrelevant. If your page passes one of
the two, people might keep reading, but you are on a short leash. If you
pass both then you’ve got their attention and maybe their business!
GOOD
Relevant
KEEP READING
GOOD
BAD
NO
NO
Overall, 65% of
home pages passed
The 5 Second Test
Not terrible, but not good. 81% of
B2B home pages have room for
improvement.
Now that you know how home pages are performing, we’d like to show you why some pages fail and why some pages pass.
With these insights, you can get a leg up on the mediocre B2B pages out there.
18.9%
perfect score
you’ve got
their full
attention
45.9%
passed
short leash
35.1%
failed
they’re
exiting

5 Musts to Help Your Page Pass the Test
From the 2220 responses, we’ve
identified the most common home
page blunders and we’ll teach you how
to fix them.
Read what people had to say
about particular home pages. Find
out what works and what doesn’t.
These insights will help you
improve your page and survive
the snap judgement.
“Looks a little hippie
for health care.”
“I like butterflies, but I don’t know what
they have to do with health care.”
“It looks like a ton of other sites I’ve seen.”

Selling tractors looks different than selling scarves or accounting software. Visually, your
site should reflect your industry, communicate professionalism, and assure users your
homepage is not a bogus result. A well designed page uses organization, font style,
imagery, and more to evoke an immediately positive, trusting response from users.
Look the part
Here’s a home page that didn’t look the part. This emo hipster looks like she
works at a tattoo parlor, not a bank. Enough about what we think, here’s what
other people had to say:
Here’s a home page that scored well on The 5 Second Test. The page looks
professional, trustworthy and matches users’ expectations when they visit a
moving company website.
“Looks too ‘hip’ to
be a bank.”
“Looks like movers made the site, like
they focus on moving and not on
branding/marketing. Regular joe.”
“Good, clean well laid out
and right to the point.”
“Yes it is relevant as I can
see in the main navigation
what I was looking for.”
“Bad, why the angry woman? Has she used
the bank and became upset?”
“It looked a
bit sleazy.”
MUST NO.

A clear, concise statement about what you do will quickly confirm the user has landed on a
relevant website. If people don’t find the content they’re looking for, they’re exiting.
Clearly state what you do
The Jeopardy theme song practically starts playing as soon as a prospect lands
on your home page. The following home page doesn’t clearly state what they
do and received a lot of impatient comments:
Here’s a home page that clearly communicates what they do.
“Had no idea
it was for
advertising.”
“I don’t know what
services you provide.”
“Definitely clear &
concise. Looks like a
viable solution, invites
me to explore.”
“It definitely advertises
what I searched for.”
“Keeping reading looking
for prices and products.”
“Ok... seems to be
what I’m looking
for.”
“Nothing on that image
told me what this site
was about.”
“Feel very empty and unclear of what
the company actually does.”
MUST NO.

Effective website content is chunkified to enhance scannability and help users find the
important message. On the web, we tend to quickly skim content in an“F”shaped pattern –
focusing more attention up top, then moving our eyes to“anchors”in the text that help us
understand the main points.
Chunkify
Encountering a cluttered homepage or long paragraphs of text is like hitting a
brick wall. Users won’t take the time to decipher it. Here’s what people are say-
ing about cluttered websites:
Help users scan and
understand page
content.
Chunkify pages with:
• a page heading
• paragraph headings
• short paragraphs and
• short lists.
On mobile devices
especially, short
paragraphs are
important in helping
users read quickly.
“Very busy
and I didn’t
know where
to look.”
“The amount of text
was intimidating.”
“Kind of busy relative to
most home pages I see
these days.”
“Bad - a lot of information; reading
lines are too long. I had difficulty
figuring out where to start.”
MUST NO.

Cliché stock photography makes your site look mundane and does not differentiate you from
the crowd. Research shows users often completely overlook images they think are irrelevant.
Avoid Stock Photos.
Use info-carrying images
While this strapping young businessman might look trustworthy, his picture
has nothing to do with efficient engineering. For all we know, he failed out of
engineering school and started modeling for stock photographers.
Instead, use information-carrying images that add value to your page’s design
or supplement content. Here’s a good example:
“Stock image
seems to
contrived.”
“I don’t know what
services you provide.”
“Keep reading since it
was obvious what the
site offers.”
“Looks like a place to
buy a pool.”
“Good. The image conveys
that you have what I’m
looking for.”
“Looks like a place
to buy a pool.”
“Kind of bad - the big
picture of the person
captured my attention and
I did not know where to
look to see what the page
was about - too many”
“Close as fast as I
can... I’m allergic to
stock art.”
MUST NO.

What“current”means on the web is constantly in flux, but an out-of-date website
can communicate your company is not“with”the times. Make your site more
adaptable to constant change by implementing modern design styles and following
usability best practices.
Be current
Bland color schemes, lackluster visuals and dated layouts turned people off: Today, current means your site should be: mobile ready , contemporary design
up-to-date content , modern UX patterns , 1-2 minute videos are trending.
Here’s a home page that’s current:
“Bad - looks
really dated.”
“Looks old and not interesting
enough to stay on.”
“It looks clean, like they’d
be good at explaining the
basics, even difficult things
in an easy way.”
“Good, clean, well laid out and
right to the point.”
“Keep reading. It looks sleek,
up to date with common web
practices.”
“Not good. old
fashioned website
design.”
“My impression is that this firm
may be a bit dated, not in a solid
‘established’ way”
MUST NO.

Take The 5 Second Test and find out if your
web page survives the snap judgement
Hopefully you’ve identified one or two things to improve on your page (and maybe you already
drafted an email to your web developer). What you don’t have is that outside perspective: snap
judgements from real people who have never seen your page before.
How confident are you about your
home page? Put it to the test:
See if you pass1. The 5 Second Test
Receive 60 insights from 20 real subjects to2.
identify how your page can be improved
Gain research-backed suggestions to help your3.
web page survive the snap judgement
Still not sure if the test is right for you?
Call us at 302-250-2339 or email at
info@brightorangethread.com for a free consultation.
http://bit.ly/12o8Du2
Take The 5 Second Test Today

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