The psychological challenges of WebPerf

120 hours of waiting per year! That’s how long the average French person waits for a computer to start up, or for web pages to load. Enormous, isn’t it? According to the same source, this waiting [in front of a PC] causes bad moods in 35% of French people.

We can logically deduce that Webperf has a psychological impact on site users. In this article, we’ve decided to take a closer look at this “psychological” aspect of our business. What’s the difference between real time and perceived time? What impact does it have on the user? On the brand? Why is it so important to take an interest in site speed? Let’s get down to the intricacies of the human mind!

When subjectivity mingles with webperf

Of course, as a website publisher, these are the IP addresses you see on your side of the screen. A series of numbers with little human content. But in reality, these IPs are users, human beings! (With the exception of a few crawlers, I grant you.) And I think we can all agree that, as humans, we sometimes have a skewed view of reality.

1. Time is relative to our enthusiasm for doing things.

I think the title of this section speaks for itself. Have you ever noticed how quickly time passes when we’re doing something pleasant, and slowly when we’re doing something we don’t like? So, the more enjoyable the experience and the end goal are for your user, the stronger the feeling of speed will be. To this we might add this study (admittedly dating from 2001) which demonstrates that there is a correlation between the completion of a task on a site and the user’s perception of speed. In fact, it would seem that a user who succeeds in achieving his or her objective on a site, would consider the site to be faster than it actually is.

2. Time is perceived differently according to age.

Psychologists have found that, as we age, we tend to underestimate the passage of time. This is probably due to the aging of the brain and the drop in dopaminergic levels. The subject is still open to debate. However, an experimental study involving a group of subjects aged between 19 and 24 and a group aged between 60 and 80 clearly demonstrates this. Their ability to estimate 3 minutes of time was compared. The study revealed that, on average, the younger group estimated that 3 minutes had elapsed after 3:03, while the second group estimated that 3 minutes had elapsed after an average of 3:40!

3. Aesthetics can influence the perception of time

Google Reader conducted a little experiment some time ago. They used to use a blue background for one of their menus. They made a second version using a white background. Then they asked their users what they thought of each version, and whether anything else had changed in their opinion. The majority of respondents replied that the second version (with the white background) seemed faster (even though it was exactly the same page). The color and/or ergonomics of your site could therefore influence an Internet user’s perception of speed.

Why is it important for users of your site to have a sense of speed?

Many companies have already realized (and some are in the process of realizing) that one of the best ways to differentiate themselves today is to offer an exceptional customer experience (Captain Train, Amazon…). Here’s why you should take a closer look at your site’s loading times:

1. To keep your visitors’ attention

• from 0.1 to 0.2 seconds, the user has a feeling of instantaneous response;
• from 0.5 to 1 second, the user has a feeling of immediacy. They feel always in control. The flow of thought is maintained;
• from 2 to 5 seconds, the surfer becomes impatient and his attention wanes;
• from 7 to 10 seconds, the surfer loses concentration and the thread of his navigation.

The fluidity of your site therefore has a direct impact on user concentration. If a page takes too long to load, you lose your user’s train of thought. They’ll start thinking about something else, and their experience on your site won’t be optimal. This can be explained by the fact that our “short-term” memory is said to be “poor”. In fact, the information stored in our “short-term” memory declines rapidly. As a result, we’re less efficient when we have to wait.

Here’s an example from an eyetracking study carried out by Nielsen Norman Group. The screens below show the behavior of two different users on the same page, which contains a slideshow (yellow insert) that takes 8 seconds to load. Each blue dot represents a point on which the user’s eyes rest. As can be seen, the 1st participant fixed his gaze for a few seconds on the space dedicated to the slideshow before it loaded. He then quickly turned his attention to the rest of the content, without returning to the slideshow. This user never looked at the slideshow once it had loaded and finally appeared. The 2nd participant (screen below) looked away from the screen while the page (and therefore the slideshow) was loading. In fact, the first time he looked at the screen, the slideshow had already loaded. We can see that he looked at the slideshow several times, unlike the 1st participant. The slideshow takes up 23% of the page. The 1st user, who had to wait for the page to load, only devoted 1% of his attention to the slideshow. The second user, who had the experience of a page displaying instantly (since he looked away while the page was loading), attributed 20% of his attention to the slideshow. Those 8 seconds of loading time therefore had a significant impact on the user’s attention. Finally, if the teams who set up this slideshow had paid closer attention to the loading time of their page, they would have had a much more effective impact on their users. That’s why loading time is such an important issue for marketing teams too. 2. For your users’ satisfaction

Your customers’ satisfaction depends directly on the impression you give them. Are you exceeding their expectations? If so, they’ll be satisfied. That’s why it’s so important for you to take an interest in your users’ perceptions and expectations, particularly in terms of speed. The difficulty, of course, will be to define your users’ expectations. One way of doing this would be to compare your site with that of your competitors, in order to assess your customers’ level of expectation.

Another element of satisfaction for your users: they need to feel in control. A slow site forces them to wait, leading to frustration and a feeling of loss of control. Your user will then be less inclined to convert on your site. They may even go to a competitor’s site. 3. For your brand image

The speed of your site is one of the first elements your customer will be confronted with. And no matter what anyone says, first impressions are often taken at face value. A slow site can give the impression of a brand with little credibility and whose services are of inferior quality.

4. And finally…to convert more!

• – 0.8 seconds loading time = +12% revenue for Shopzilla, according to an article by Capitaine Commerce
• -17% loading time = +14.84% conversion rate for a media sales site
• – 2.2 seconds loading time = +15.4% downloads of its Firefox browser for Mozilla
• And the example everyone knows: +100ms = – 1% in sales for Amazon.

And what about customer loyalty?

57% of Internet users say they leave a site after 3 seconds, and 80% of them will never return. In fact, 85% would not recommend the site to friends and family, even if it meant damaging the brand’s reputation in the process.

To find out more about the impact of loading times, download our white paper on the impact of web performance on UX, SEO and conversions: Download the white paper

So what’s the bottom line?

• Your users’ perception of your page’s loading time has a major impact on your business.

• A slow site frustrates and distracts your potential customers.

• Your site is a reflection of your brand.

• The best way to stand out today is to offer your visitors an exceptional user experience.

It’s up to you!