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How much performance do I need?

by akd on 9/3/09, 7:54 PM with 1 comments

Does anyone have any links to scientific papers or other quantitative results about how fast web interfaces need to be to keep users satisfied? What is acceptable latency for a page refresh? What is acceptable for a Flash application download? I'm not sure what the correct terms to search in ACM are but I've found some material on progress bars.

  • by mbrubeck on 9/3/09, 8:13 PM

    Here's a very brief set of guidelines (including citations): http://www.useit.com/papers/responsetime.html

    Excerpt:

    "0.1 second is about the limit for having the user feel that the system is reacting instantaneously, meaning that no special feedback is necessary except to display the result.

    "1.0 second is about the limit for the user's flow of thought to stay uninterrupted, even though the user will notice the delay. Normally, no special feedback is necessary during delays of more than 0.1 but less than 1.0 second, but the user does lose the feeling of operating directly on the data.

    "10 seconds is about the limit for keeping the user's attention focused on the dialogue. For longer delays, users will want to perform other tasks while waiting for the computer to finish, so they should be given feedback indicating when the computer expects to be done. Feedback during the delay is especially important if the response time is likely to be highly variable, since users will then not know what to expect."