We now have a shorter Attention Span than goldfish
This extensive study by Microsoft Corp. found out that average human attention span has reduced from whopping(!) 12 seconds in 2012 to mere 8 seconds in 2015. The average attention span of a so-called ill-focused goldfish is nine seconds. The study found that people generally lose concentration after 8 seconds, as a result of our increasingly digitized lifestyle. So if your customers can’t see your complete webpage or do what they want to on your web or mobile app within 8 seconds, you lose them forever.
Mobile phones are taking over the world
Per this latest research by Pew Research Center, 64% of American adults now own a smartphone, up from 35% in mid-2011. Number of global mobile internet users exceeded desktop users for the first time in 2014. Last holiday season, mobile devices accounted for more than half of the ecommerce traffic. In developing countries, more people are being introduced to internet and ecommerce via mobile devices than desktops. Few years back, mobile users were considered as being patient about the speed of native apps, however now they will reportedly abandon the app if the action doesn’t complete in 300 secs. Also as the mobile use grows, the online shoppers are striving for seamless experience between web and mobile platform.
You think faster is better?
Tying the above two points together, we see that the online shopping cart abandonment has reached an all time high of 75%. There are researches like this that show that faster may not be always better. It’s not as simple as ‘delivering content fast’ when it comes to boosting online shopper’s experience. You have to take into account the design, the context, the sequence in which the content loads and minimize the usage of dynamic content without sacrificing user’s attention. And if that doesn’t make web and app developers’ lives difficult enough, they also have to think about what appeals to their users, emotional content or attention grabbing content.
Understanding how important (and complicated) the business of web and mobile performance is, creates a perfect foundation to introduce our new infographic. We revised our ‘cost of poor web performance’ infographic to include references to latest research and changing consumer landscape; a 2.0 version if you will. Presenting cost of poor performance – web and mobile.
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