Designing and Engineering Time: The Psychology of Time Perception in Software

by Steven C. Seow

Build Applications, Websites, and Software Solutions that Feel Faster, More Efficient, and More Considerate of Users’ Time! One hidden factor powerfully influences the way users react to your software, hardware, User Interfaces (UI), or web how those systems utilize users’ time . Now, drawing on the nearly 40 years of human computer interaction research–including his own pioneering work–Dr. Steven Seow presents state-of-the-art best practices for reflecting users’ subjective perceptions of time in your applications and hardware. Seow begins by introducing a simple model that explains how users perceive and expend time as they interact with technology. He offers specific guidance and recommendations related to several key aspects of time and timing–including user tolerance, system responsiveness, progress indicators, completion time estimates, and more. Finally, he brings together proven techniques for impacting users’ perception of time drawn from multiple disciplines and industries, ranging from psychology to retail, animal research to entertainment. • Discover how time and timing powerfully impact user perception, emotions, and behavior • Systematically make your applications more considerate of users’ time • Avoid common mistakes that consistently frustrate or infuriate users • Manage user perceptions and tolerance, and build systems that are perceived as faster • Optimize “flow” to make users feel more productive, empowered, and creative • Make reasonable and informed tradeoffs that maximize limited development resources • Learn how to test usability issues related to time–including actual vs. perceived task duration Designing and Engineering Time is for every technology developer, designer, engineer, architect, usability specialist, manager, and marketer. Using its insights and techniques, technical and non-technical professionals can work together to build systems and applications that provide far more value– and create much happier users . Steven C. Seow has a unique combination of experience in both experimental psychology and software usability. He joined Microsoft as a User Researcher after completing his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Brown University with a research focus on human timing and information theory models of human performance. Seow holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and wrote his master’s thesis on distortions in time perception. For more information about Steven Seow and his research, visit his website at . informit.com/aw

Genres: Design, Psychology, Programming

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

Reviews

[Pavel Moiseenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Очень узкая тема — время в интерфейсе, но разобрана досконально. Конспект: http://pavelmoiseenko.ru/blog/proekti...

[Simon Eskildsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Came looking for research on how users of computers perceive time. Got some of that, could've gotten more, could've gotten less. Overall, satisfied, but not raving about it. Alright, what did I learn?

Of course, time is extremely subjective. Two people at a restaurant may have gotten the exact same service, at the exact same time, and had wildly different experiences—just based on their mental state. People tend to overestimate waiting times by 25%. That's a lot. People also tend to be less pissed about time if you tell them why things take time. E.g. sitting in an airplane waiting sucks. Sitting in an airplane waiting after your captain told you they're doing a repair that'd cause the jet to otherwise have an increased probability of abruptly gravitating towards the ground—now I'm patient!

Something I found useful is that something has to become about 20% slower for humans detect it. E.g. you load a page, then load it again, if it's less than 20% slower we're unlikely to detect it. If you compare two things side-by-side, then you're looking at the geometric mean between the two timings as what's making sense. That seems almost too orderly... but ok, I'll believe you dr. Seow.

Alright, what else. If something takes more than 5 seconds, people get impatient and will assume your thing is broken unless you show some loading indicator. Alright. Oh! He introduced me to the Barnabus Effect. You know how when you walk somewhere new it always feels like going there takes longer than going back? Well, you're not alone—the heightened attention in a new area makes our time perception slow down.

[Tim Kadlec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discussions of performance quickly turn into a discussion of stats and metrics. What really matters, though, is how users perceive the performance of your application/program/website. This book focuses on that: improving the perceived performance of your project. It's a quick read, but each chapter offers up a wealth of handy references for digging deeper into a specific topic discussed.

An excellent introduction to time perception for any engineer, developer, or designer.

[Jac · Rating 3 out of 5]

A basic but interesting and easy to read introduction to a lot of concepts around user flow, satisfaction, and general psychology.