> -----Original Message-----
> From: s. isaac dealey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 5:06 AM
> To: CF-Talk
> Subject: Re: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home
> page?
>
> IIRC when Macromedia had launched their new website a few years ago
> (Dylan I think they called it), they published a few articles that
> described web-wide averages as well as their own targets (the research
> they'd done during the planning phase). They hit their target of having
> pages load completely in under 15 seconds... as compared to a web-wide
> average of about 7 seconds. (Those numbers are from memory -- they may
> not be entirely accurate.) The overwhelming response from users was
> that
> although it was visually appealing, it seemed tragically slow (for what
> seemed to be relatively static pages anyway - I believe users are
> generally okay with waiting a little longer for pages that are
> returning data dynamically from a search for example).
It's not so much that they're more willing to wait for databases (they don't
know or care HOW the thing works). There are actually a few things that
work here.
People are always willing to wait longer for information specific to them.
If they enter a search term they will wait for the results. This doesn't
change user experience - they still notice the delays, lose focus, etc - but
they are willing to wait because "the page" is working for them.
I've never actually seen it studied (and I'm too lazy to do so) but I
strongly believe there's a form of "queue affinity" going on. Queue
Affinity is when people get into line, say at the grocery store or the bank
- anyplace where there's multiple lines moving at different speeds.
Once people make a decision to get into line there's a strong tendency to
stay there even when they're faced with another line moving faster. They'll
stay in the line past normal levels of task abandonment (the time it takes
to drop a task in frustration).
There's been some work correlating this to phone queues as well as
technology decisions ("fanboyism", where an essentially arbitrary choice -
a cell phone, game system, computer OS, etc) results in string emotions
AGAINST the competition. Once people fall down that road they become more
and willing to put up with the negatives of their chosen option.
This is one of the main reasons that (I think) sites like Amazon.com and
eBay.com - sites which have taken severe plunges in usability - are still so
popular. Despite the fact that these sites are usability nightmares they
still have rabidly loyal followers (I still buy more from Amazon than from
anybody else).
Jim Davis
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