Re: Loosemore's law (was UKNM: Fast-loading sites)

[Chris Locke]

At 04:43 PM 10/18/99 +0100, you wrote:

>-----Original Message-----

>

>From: Tomski [tomtomski [dot] com (mailto:tomtomski [dot] com)]

>

>>let's call it loosemore's law: intolerence of delay increases

>>proportionally with speed of connection....

>

>Hmmm..

>

>This makes the point so simply that I may just be inclined to adopt it.

>_If_ we can develop it a little. 

>

>Metcalfe and Moore have simple metrics at the heart of their laws; you

>know, things that sit comfortably on a graph, like squaring and eighteen

>months.  Can we get Loosemore to this point? I doubt that there are

>agreed measures for intolerance, so we need to work on an agreed and

>measurable symptom of intolerance. In terms of speed we need to think

>absolute. How about an axis that holds a progression towards subliminal

>delay ( this stuff will be familiar to this audience:

>http://www.useit.com/papers/responsetime.html ).

>

>Symptoms of intolerance... now there's a can of worms.....


the problem is also the *perception* of delay as much as the delay itself.


users using cashpoint ATMs regularly experience a few seconds between

selecting how much they hope they've got in their account and getting their

money.  when I see a plain piece of text, I presume that the delay is

technological.  But the few times I've seen an ad for a loan displayed

during this break, I've a)perceived the time a longer and b)blamed the ad

for the further delay.


Equally, if I'm dowloading a site and I can't see bugger all becuase my

screen is filled with empty image cells or, heaven forbid, a loading flash

app, I get way more impatient and blame the images/flash.  If I'm

downloading a site which is less bloated, I can see more of it and can make

the decision about whether I want to wait or not, and I'm also more likely

to suspect that I have a slow connection.  In this situations I always call

up news.bbc.co.uk as a standard-bearer, as I view this often and it loads

fast.


summary - bloated design = perceived longer download times and increased

intolerance


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