Feedback:Response Times
From KDE-HIG_Wiki
Research regarding acceptable response times in computer systems trace back to Miller in 1968 (Miller, 1968). According to Nielsen (Nielsen, 1994), the advice for response times is still based on these findings and the same for more than 30 years now.
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Response Times Overview
| Maximum Response Time | Effect on User | UI Events |
| 0.1 second: | System is reacting immediately. | Mouse click, keypress, moving or mouse, moving of objects, resizing, ... |
| 1.0 second: | User notices the delay, but flow of thought stays unaffected. | Application startup, ... |
| 10 seconds: | Maximum limit to keep the user's attention on the application. | Tasks that require more extensive processing, e.g. manipulation of large images, etc. |
<todo>add more UI events </todo>
Sources:
Nielsen, J. (1994). Usability Engineering. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco.
Miller, R. B. (1968). Response time in man-computer conversational transactions. Proc. AFIPS Fall Joint Computer Conference Vol. 33, 267-277.
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Guidelines
- Try to avoid response time greater than 10 seconds by
- caching data whenever possible and plausible,
- showing the most important information first,
- preparing possible next steps which might be invoked by the user,
- prioritizing jobs according to the user's needs,
- allowing the user to perform other actions during extended or background operations.
- Provide visual feedback for response times > 1 second (see Types of Feedback)
- Provide this feedback as soon as possible.
