System Response Time and User Satisfaction: An Experimental Study of Browser-based Applications

With rapid advances in hardware speed and data communication bandwidth, one might not expect to have to deal with issues such as response time and system performance. But these issues remain a very real concern today. Lengthy system response times may cause lower satisfaction and poor productivity among users. Lowered user satisfaction may lead to discontinued use of an application, especially in discretionary applications such as those found on the Internet. The intent of this experimental research is to (1) substantiate that slow system response time leads to dissatisfaction; (2) assess the point at which users may become dissatisfied with system response time; (3) determine a threshold at which dissatisfaction may lead to discontinued use of the application, and (4) determine if experience influences response time tolerance. The results showed that indeed satisfaction does decrease as response time increases. However, instant response was not perceived as making the system easier to use or learn. It also showed that for discretionary applications, there appears to be a level of intolerance in the 12-second response range. Background and Introduction With rapid advances in hardware speed and data communication bandwidth, one might not expect to have to deal with issues such as response time and system performance. But these issues remain a very real concern today. As systems become more powerful, their applications become more complex as users expect more functionality and richer information. While response time is recognized as a component in some application usability and human factors studies (Goodwin, 1987; Nielsen, 1994; Shneiderman, 1991; Shneiderman, 1998) users today face similar system response time issues that faced users a decade ago. As web developers experience slow response times due to lengthy downloads of graphic intensive material, they are redesigning the sites to minimize this overhead. This will not be an acceptable long-term solution to accommodating electronic commerce. The network may have pockets of high-speed access and adequate bandwidth, but overall high-speed access is unavailable and many of the sites may not have been designed to handle the traffic and data volume