Response time

[Michael Engle]

Does anyone know of studies (formal or informal) on how long users of
networked computer systems are willing to wait for a document page/image to
be displayed?  I realize that this a a very complex issue, that user
expectations for the speed of display systems is highly contextual, that
there are different levels of satisfaction and frustration in a given
environment, and that there is not one answer to this question.  The
context for this inquiry is my work on a committee that is considering
criteria for unacceptable, acceptable, and optimal performance for
full-document delivery systems.

I'd appreciate any responses.  Please feel free to respond directly to me,
moe1 at cornell.edu, rather than to the list, and I will summarize for the
group.  I will say, just to get the ball rolling, that I have noted/have
heard that 20 seconds seems to be an acceptable upper limit in some
situations.  Obviously, we'd all prefer to have everything in under one
second, but that is not economically feasible at the moment.



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  Michael O. Engle
Reference Services Div.      moe1 at cornell.edu
  Olin * Kroch * Uris
   104A Uris Library
 Cornell Univ. Library         (607) 255-1884
  Ithaca, NY  14853

Reference/Instruction/Collection Development

WWW: http://urislib.library.cornell.edu/
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Work is love made visible.       ---Gibran