Soft Performance

Dimiter Simov, SAP

performance

a task or operation seen in terms of how successfully it is performed

“pay increases are now being linked more closely to performance”

the capabilities of a machine, product, or vehicle“the hardware is put through tests which assess the performance of the processor”

2Source: Google define

Goals

Show that bytes and seconds are not the only way to think about performance

Give some pieces of advice on how to optimize software for soft performance

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Seconds are important

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The time visitors were willing to wait for a page to load before they left

Source: Slow websites can cost you money!

3 seconds load time is old news

in 2012, 400 milliseconds was too long

what about today?

5Source: For Impatient Web Users, an Eye Blink Is Just Too Long to Wait

Read this text please

Performance is an objective hard measure of speed, reliability, robustness, endurance, and more. Performance however has also a soft side – the user perception. Today we will discuss soft performance in some detail – the idea is to give you an idea. Some of the things that affect soft performance are the way we format texts, what messages we provide and how, obeying or not with the law of Fitts, ordering the interface in a specific layout, the way of structuring content, users’ ability to complete their tasks, keeping users engaged, presenting progress in ways that users perceive faster, and providing aesthetically pleasing interfaces.

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Now try this one

Performance: objective measure of speed, reliability, robustness, endurance… has a soft side – user perception. We discuss it today.

Things that affect soft performance:

user successuser engagementpresentation of progressaesthetics

texts and formattingmessagingFitts’s lawstructure and layout

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What issues do you see with text 1

Performance is an objective hard measure of speed, reliability, robustness, endurance, and more. Performance however has also a soft side – the user perception. Today we will discuss soft performance in some detail – the idea is to give you an idea. Some of the things that affect soft performance are the way we format texts, what messages we provide and how, obeying or not with the law of Fitts, ordering the interface in a specific layout, the way of structuring content, users’ ability to complete their tasks, keeping users engaged, presenting progress in ways that users perceive faster, and providing aesthetically pleasing interfaces.

Italics

Low contrast

Small font size

Justified alignment

No highlighting of keywords

Block of text

Wordiness8

Formatting dates and numbers

2013-03-12 12:30:45

12 Mar 2009 12:30:45

5 years ago 12 Mar 2009

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TEXT AND FORMATTING

Texts that are written and formatted well are faster and easier to scan, read, understand, and remember compared to non-formatted texts

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Example

Résumé of the homepage of a website about Nebraska

Goal of the site: attract tourists

Source: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/ 11

Original text

Nebraska is filled with internationally recognized attractions that draw large crowds of people every year, without fail. In 1996, some of the most popular places were Fort Robinson State Park (355,000 visitors), Scotts Bluff National Monument (132,166), Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum (100,000), Carhenge (86,598), Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002), and Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (28,446).

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In half: 58% better readability

In 1996, six of the best-attended attractions in Nebraska were Fort Robinson State Park, Scotts Bluff National Monument, Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum, Carhenge, Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, and Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park.

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Scannable: 47% better readability

Nebraska is filled with internationally recognized attractions that draw large crowds of people every year, without fail. In 1996, some of the most popular places were:

Fort Robinson State Park (355,000 visitors) Scotts Bluff National Monument (132,166) Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum (100,000) Carhenge (86,598) Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002) Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (28,446).

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Objective: 27% better readability

Nebraska has several attractions. In 1996, some of the most-visited places were Fort Robinson State Park (355,000 visitors), Scotts Bluff National Monument (132,166), Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum (100,000), Carhenge (86,598), Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002), and Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (28,446).

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Combined: 124% better readability

In 1996, six of the most-visited places in Nebraska were: Fort Robinson State Park Scotts Bluff National Monument Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum Carhenge Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park

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piece of advice

Write and format well

Training in writing and formattingLarge fontsImportant info at the topHighlighted important conceptsLess is more

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Check this out

What can a user who reads the following message do?

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It should not be hard to parse the input and ignore spaces, dashes, dots…

Validation

Necessary or not?

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piece of advice

Think about messaging

Try to avoid messages don’t write messages, design interactions

If you have to give a message, make sure it says: what happened why what users can do about it

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Which is faster to click

the mouse is here

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Quiz

Which point on the screen is the fastest to click?

Which are the other four?

Why?

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Fitts’ Law

The time needed to reach a target depends on the distance to and size of the target

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W

DbaT

21log 2

Quiz

Which one is better?

You can click here to see Jimmy’s presentation slides

View Jimmy’s presentation slides

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X~7X

FITTS’ LAW

Objects that are larger and closerare easier and faster to point and click/touchcompared to objects that are small and far away

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piece of advice

Fitts’ law is a friend of yours

Large clickable things: links, buttonsAction buttons close to where the interaction isObjects stuck to the edges of the screen

Take Tog’s quiz: http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html

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Quiz

Which country used to have the largest internet population?

Why?wrong defaultcollecting unnecessary info

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STRUCTURE & LAYOUT

User interfaces that are light and make sense to users are faster and easier to use they are less error-prone as well

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1 user per 1 hour

Annual non-productive time: ~ 33 work days

ActionTimes per 1

hour DurationLoss per 1

hourLoss per 1

month

Reload 3 34 sec 2 min 4 hours

Switch tabs 63 4 sec 4 min 10 hours

Resize 8 17 sec 2 min 5 hours

Total     8 min 19 hours

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piece of advice

Match user tasks and talk

Recognition, not recallMatch user tasks and workflowsLeast time on pageMeaningful defaultsHidden non-important elements

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The faster website

10 websitesUsers performed their own personal tasksNo two users performed the same tasks on any siteFor each site, users rated how fast they felt the site was - perceived speedActual speed measured as well

Source: The Truth About Download Time, http://www.uie.com/articles/download_time/ 37

Which site was faster?

about.comactual speed: 8 secondsperceived speed: slowest

amazon.comactual speed: 36 secondsperceived speed: fastest

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Surprise!

Correlation between perceived speed and success

Even when a site is slow, if users succeed, they feel it fast

No correlation between actual speed and success

Even when a site is fast, if users fail, they feel it slow

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USER SUCCESS

Users who successfully perform their tasks with an UI are likely to perceive it as performing well

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piece of advice

Make sure users succeed

When users complain that your service is slow, check how often they can accomplish their tasks before you decide to optimize download speeds and server response times

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USER ENGAGEMENT

Keeping users engaged reduces subjective time

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Quiz

How do you speed up a slow elevator?

Install mirrors

See The Evolution of a Legend, http://www3.sympatico.ca/karasik/GF_evolution_of_legend.html

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Do elevators nowadays really need mirrors?

Why?

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Quiz

Why is streaming video successful?

We start watching instantaneously

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piece of advice

Keep users engaged

Do not interrupt user flowGive users something to do while waiting: watch, read, click

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48

Watch this

GO

GO

GO

Quiz

Which of the previous three slides was the fastest?

Why?

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Why

…humans perceive time in non-linear way

…people perceive as fastest a progress bar that starts slow and accelerates towards the end

Source: http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/ProgressBars 53

piece of advice

Indicate progress

Speed up your progress indicators

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Which shape do you prefer?

Why?

3

6

2.79

7.13

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Geometric and natural proportions

Vlad Golovach claims that we perceive objects that have geometric or natural proportions as harmonic and aesthetically pleasing

Source:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19787509

Natural1 x 1.618 – the golden ratio1 x 3.14 – π1 x 414 – square root of 2

Geometric1 x 11 x 21 x 32 x 3

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AESTHETICS

Aesthetically pleasing interfaces improve performance and usability

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Visual aesthetics affects performanceFour versions of a website

high and low visual aesthetics good and poor usability

Beauty compensated for poor usability by speeding up task completion

Source:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19787509 59

piece of advice

Tend to appearance

Visual designerProportionsBeauty

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Performance has a soft side

text and formatting

messaging

Fitts’ law

layout and structure

user success and engagement

presentation of progress

aesthetics 1 x 1.618 – the golden ratio61

you will find out other factors… let me know

Questions?