Perceived download time

By Kristoffer Bohmann, Bohmann Usability


Hrm... where is the content?	Ahh, now it works.

Users' perceived download time is high when web pages load in several small steps. This is frequently seen on database-generated websites - first top navigation is loaded and a few seconds later content is added. The above screenshots show how the national Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's homepage renders in two steps. Users of slow Internet connections perceives this situation as awkward and annoying (e.g., "what's wrong with this site?").

This does not necessarily make users leave. But the most impatient users will leave to more usable sites if they experience more noice from other design elements such as banner ads and cluttered design. Accordingly, response time remain a priority.

The mistake can be fixed by publishing each web page as plain HTML-documents hourly or daily. This ensures that error-free webpages are loaded in a more fluent way.

Usability engineers often overlook such basic mistakes as they are using high-speed Internet connections as opposed to the slower 56k and ISDN modems used by actual users. Also, evaluators may not browse the site when it has most readers during morning hours, when news breaks, or during lunch break.

Kristoffer Bohmann

Perceived download time

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