You have five seconds to look like you mean it
Most visitors decide whether to keep reading before they read anything. Here is what actually moves that first impression.
Most visitors decide whether to keep reading before they read a single sentence. They register a shape, a colour, a level of care, and they make a judgement. It is not fair, but it is consistent.
The good news is that the things that carry a first impression are boring and fixable. Legible type at a comfortable size. Enough space around the headline that it feels deliberate. One clear action instead of five competing ones. Photographs that look like your actual work rather than a stock library.
We start every project with the top of the home page for exactly this reason. If that section is honest and calm, the rest of the site has room to explain itself.
A useful test: shrink the page until the text is unreadable and look only at the blocks. If the arrangement still reads as ordered and confident, you are in good shape. If it looks busy, no amount of copywriting will rescue it.
Mara Ellison
Design lead
Draws layouts, argues about spacing, writes most of what ends up here.
