Web Site Delays: How Tolerant Are Users?

Galletta, D. F., Henry, R., McCoy, S., & Polak, P. (2004). Web Site Delays: How Tolerant Are Users?. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 5(1), 1–28.

Experiment with 196 students and nine search tasks.

• Performance and behavioral intent declined then began to level off around four seconds of delay; attitude leveled off around eight seconds.
• Delay explained relatively little variance: about 2%, 5%, and 7% for performance, attitude, and intent, and up to roughly 16% for familiar sites.

Limitations: Student participants; delays were held constant.

• Loading delays reduce performance and intentNot tested

  Loading delays can reduce task performance and willingness to return, with much of the decline occurring in the first seconds.