how the brain reacts to a slow corporate website
TRANSCRIPT
People don’t like slow57% leave a slow site after waiting 3 seconds
78% have experienced stressor anger with a slow site50% feel that websites areslower now than five years ago
have thrown their mobile phones away
in anger after experiencing a slow
website
Some people really don’t like slow4%
We want you to be able to flick from one page to another as quickly as you can flick a page on a book. So we’re really aiming very, very high here… at something like 100 milliseconds.
– Urs Hölzle, Senior VP Operations, Google
Short time memory
A Jakob Nielsen study from 2010 shows that negative reactions on slow websites are connectedto our
How your brain perceives page load times
10 secKeeps your
attention… Barely
2 4 6 8 10 12 13 140
0.1 secFeels
instantaneous
+10 secLoses you
1 secLets you
think seamlessly
Based on a diagram from Strangeloop (http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/ThisIsYourBrainonaSlowWebsite_50abe136dc836_w1500.jpg)
How the memory works – simplified crash courseSensor memory: Visual memory. Deleted every 100 milli secondShort term memory: Stores information for 10-15 seconds, then it’s goneWorking memory: Your brain’s Post-it notes and you only have a limited amount(Long-term memory: Not relevant in this case)
When visiting a website, we use different parts of our memory your goal as a webmaster is toReduce the use of working memory.Appeal to the sensor memory.
Less use of brain capacity to figure out the interface and getting upset over slow websites, allows your visitor to actually focus on your website. Not get distracted.
Be creative and makebeautiful websites
But not at the expense ofwebsite speed
Because that’s also at theexpense of your visitors
In a nutshell