Slow response-time cheat sheet

Question

Does anyone have links to current and historical papers and authoritative links (statistics and blog posts) regarding response-time for user interfaces?

Naturally the a

Answer 1

I came across these recently pertaining to website speed:

Men Need Speed http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/usability-criteria/

Study: Web Users Prefer Speed Over Customization http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/design-factors/

Answer 2

Saving Lives

I read this little article

To quote Steve Jobs:

"Well, let's say you can shave 10 seconds off of the boot time. Multiply that by five million users and thats 50 million seconds, every single day. Over a year, that's probably dozens of lifetimes. So if you make it boot ten seconds faster, you've saved a dozen lives. That's really worth it, don't you think?"

I think the same argument can be made for response-time on high volume sites.

Answer 3

Jared Spool shares some results of research conducted at UIE about the importance of performing a goal rather than download time.

Since we conducted the original research five years ago, we’ve repeatedly discovered users are more interested in achieving their goals than having speedy page loads. Since goals are often complex and require the users to be thoughtful, the best designed sites seem to get away with slower-than-average pages.

The original research from 2001 he references is The Truth About Download Time by Christine Perfetti and Lori Landesman.

Answer 4

Similar to the link lavinio posted, Jakob Nielsen's recent article outlines a 0.5/0.1/0.5 second rule for hover times of dropdown menus.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mega-dropdown-menus.html

Answer 5

I think the simplest answer was in an article by Jakob Nielsen where he defined the 10/1/.1 second rule in Response Times: The Three Important Limits. That article is based on a section from his book Usability Engineering. He's presenting further research and applicability to the web in several 2009 sessions, all linked to from 1.

Answer 6

I just came across:

System Response Time and User Satisfaction: An Experimental Study of Browser-based Application (watch out its a PDF) by John A. Hoxmeier, Ph.D.

The summary of the findings are:

• H1 satisfaction decreases as response time increases [supported]
• H2 Dissatisfaction leads to discontinued use [supported]
• H3 ease of use decreases as satisfaction decreases [supported]
• H4 experienced users more tolerant of slower response times [not supported]