Tammy Everts

RWD Summit – April 2014

How Slow Pages Hurt

the Entire User Experience

Understanding the neurological impact

of poor performance

It’s a mobile-first world.

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55% of all time spent on retail sites takes place on a mobile device.

comScore, October 2013

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Stuart McMillan, Schuh’s Journey to RWD (Conversion Conference 2013)

Four all-too-common

mobile assumptions

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Assumption #1

My site isn’t slow on mobile.

Radware, 2013 State of the Union: Mobile Ecommerce Performance

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Radware, 2013 State of the Union: Mobile Ecommerce Performance

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Two things are slowing down your site for mobile

(and they’re completely beyond your control).

• Latency – can range

from 35 milliseconds

to 350+ milliseconds

per resource (e.g. images,

CSS files)

• Connection – 3G can be

up to 15 times slower

than broadband

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RWD is awesome, but it *can* come

with performance penalties.

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Assumption #2

Mobile users expect pages to be slow.

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Keynote, 2012 Mobile User Survey

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Assumption #3

Mobile users want to browse, not buy.

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By 2017, retail mcommerce is expected to hit $113 billion – 26% of total ecommerce sales.

eMarketer, September 2013

Mobile shopping cart abandonment rate is 39% greater than desktop rate.

2013 Google I/O

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Assumption #4

Users will stick around, even if pages

are slow, if they really want to buy.

Skava/Harris Interactive, 2013

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Case study: The impact of HTML delay on mobile business metrics

Why neuroscientific mobile testing?

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• 2010 EEG study of desktop

users

• Throttled connection from 5MB

to 2MB

• Found that participants had to

concentrate up to 50% harder

• Afterward, participants reported

negative brand associations

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What is emotional

engagement research?

“95% of the consumer’s

decisions are made at the

subconscious level.”

Dr. Gerald Zaltman, Harvard UniversityExecutive Committee of Harvard University’s

Mind, Brain and Behavior Interfaculty Initiative

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The problem with surveys…

Traditional research relies on eliciting post-cognitive

responses.

But thinking and talking about emotions changes and

distorts them.

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Five benefits of neuroscientific testing

1 Evaluates think/feel (not say)

2 Quantified data

3 Moment-by-moment interaction

4 Cause-and-effect triggers

5 Fresh, deeper insights

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EEG Emotional Engagement Study

Our research team

• Seren – leaders in customer experience & service design

• NeuroStrata – expert consultants in blending neuromarketing

applications

• Neurosense – global leader in implicit methodologies

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The brands we tested

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Our testers

• 24 testers (12 male and 12 female)

• Pre-screened to ensure normal cognitive functioning

• Experienced mobile device users

• Did not know they were part of a performance study

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Methodology

• Standardized set of shopping tasks (browsing and checkout)

• Testers served sites over one of two speeds:

– normal Wifi

– artificial 500ms delay

• Using EEG headset and eyetracker, measured moment-by-

moment responses

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Why test a 500ms delay?

Case study: The impact of HTML delay on mobile business metrics

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We focused on the metrics most affected by the 500ms delay.

Frustration

Emotional engagement

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Normal speed

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2.66s 2.92s 2.83s 4.24s

Frustration levels across sites (normal speed)

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Engagement levels across sites (normal speed)

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500ms delay: Peak frustration results

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500ms delay: Average engagement results

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Impact of site speed on post-test brand association

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If pages aren’t fast, everything suffers.

Content “boring”

Visual design “tacky” and “confusing”

Navigation “frustrating” and “hard-to-navigate”

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Takeaways

1 People feel “web stress” even when shopping under ideal

conditions.

2 Slower web performance has a clear and measurable impact

on people at a neurological level.

3 Slow sites can seriously undermine overall brand health.

4 The nature and scale of impact varies, depending on a

number of factors (e.g. inherent strength/weakness of brand).

5 This presents great opportunities to strengthen overall brand

by investing in performance optimization.

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http://www.radware.com/mobile-eeg2013/

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Sources

Web Stress: A Wake-Up Call for European Business (Foviance, 2010)

http://www.ca.com/us/~/media/files/supportingpieces/final_webstress_survey_report_229296.aspx

2013 Social & Mobile Commerce Consumer Report (Shop.org / comScore)

http://shop.org/research/original/2013-social-mobile-commerce-consumer-report

2012 Mobile User Survey (Keynote)

http://www.keynote.com/docs/reports/Keynote-2012-Mobile-User-Survey.pdf

2013 State of the Union: Mobile Ecommerce Performance (Radware)

http://www.radware.com/mobile-sotu2013/

The Danger of a Poor Mobile Shopping Experience [INFOGRAPHIC]

http://www.getelastic.com/the-danger-of-a-poor-mobile-shopping-experience-infographic/

Case study: The impact of HTML delay on mobile business metrics (Web Performance Today, November 2011)

http://www.webperformancetoday.com/2011/11/23/case-study-slow-page-load-mobile-business-metrics/

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webperformancetoday.com

twitter.com/tameverts

linkedin.com/in/tammyeverts

plus.google.com/+TammyEverts/

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Questions?