Resoonse times (was Re: Progress bars)

[Richard Gaskin]

Richard Gaskin wrote:
> In your case it may be possible to shorten the connection time so that 
> simply displaying something like "Connecting to database..." with a 
> watch cursor will buy you the patience needed from your user to complete 
> the connection without frustration.
> 
> Some studies suggest that the threshold of such patience is around 10 
> seconds - from <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703a.html>:

I just found a slightly better article from UseIt.com which contains 
more detailed info on response times for applications:

     The basic advice regarding response times has been about
     the same for almost thirty years [Miller 1968; Card et
     al. 1991]:

     * 0.1 second is about the limit for having the user
       feel that the system is reacting instantaneously,
       meaning that no special feedback is necessary
       except to display the result.

     * 1.0 second is about the limit for the user's flow
       of thought to stay uninterrupted, even though the
       user will notice the delay. Normally, no special
       feedback is necessary during delays of more than
       0.1 but less than 1.0 second, but the user does
       lose the feeling of operating directly on the data.

     * 10 seconds is about the limit for keeping the user's
       attention focused on the dialogue. For longer delays,
       users will want to perform other tasks while waiting
       for the computer to finish, so they should be given
       feedback indicating when the computer expects to be
       done. Feedback during the delay is especially
       important if the response time is likely to be
       highly variable, since users will then not know
       what to expect.

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

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
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