The guest of the online interview event, organized by Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Communication, Department of Visual Communication Design, was Alaa Alnuaimi, Founder and Creative Director of Minus 99 Tasarım Stüdyosu. In the interview moderated by Head of Visual Communication Design Department, Assoc. Prof. Dr. And Algül, Alaa Alnuaimi made evaluations regarding the topic 'Perception of Speed in Web Design'. Emphasizing that real speed perception and virtual speed perception are different, Alaa Alnuaimi stated that perception management is important.
“As websites slow down, customers are lost”
Alaa Alnuaimi, speaking about the impact of website speed on customers, said: “Half of people say they abandon websites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. It is the same with a normal mobile application. This 3 seconds is actually a very short time. There's an issue introduced by Google three years ago. They said that as of August 2018, if website speeds do not meet certain criteria, they will drop in search engine results. This means that if your sites are slow, you are neither providing good service to users nor appearing in Google searches anymore. In other words, as sites slow down, customers are lost. This situation is also quite critical.”
“A fast website builds trust”
Alaa Alnuaimi, speaking about the designer's responsibilities on the site, said: “Designers who create websites need to take responsibility and improve the sites and services offered on the internet. Generally, a fast website builds trust. The websites you use and trust every day are usually companies that address problems. That's why you like those sites and visit them constantly. Another reason these sites receive the most visits is the page loading speed. This is not a very surprising result. If something hasn't loaded on the page, you won't see the other things on the page, so of course, speed will be the most important factor. First, a site should appear; then, finding what you're looking for, the page content, and transitioning between screens become important for people.”
“Real speed perception and virtual speed perception are different”
Alaa Alnuaimi emphasized that human speed perception can vary according to the conditions they are in: “People generally don't time things when they are experiencing something, saying 'Let's see how long it took'. No one examines it by thinking, 'How many seconds does it open in, what's happening?' You experience something, and with your current feeling and perception, websites make you say things like, 'It was very nice, very fluid' or 'This site tired me out too much, I won't visit it again, and I'll forgo such a service'. Therefore, real speed perception and virtual speed perception are different. How you manage that perception is a very important issue that starts right from the design stage. For example, in an experiment, people are asked to load a page. The loading of these pages takes less than 4 seconds for all experiments. Although over 70% of people perceive this as fast, a non-negligible proportion perceives it as slow. They perceive the exact same thing as slower,” he stated.
“People have very different speed perceptions”
Alaa Alnuaimi pointed out that varying perception conditions among people are grouped under 4 categories: “People have very different speed perceptions. These speed perceptions can be placed under four main categories. The first is what we call 'effective use'. If that application or website displays the first visible elements on the page only after all objects have loaded, it's perceived as slow; but if it loads piece by piece, it's perceived as fast. Another issue is age. On average, young people perceive everything a bit slower than older people. Because they have higher speed expectations. The other issue is mental state. If a person is at peace, they perceive things as fast; but if they are stressed or uneasy, then they perceive things as slower. The last issue is the state of motion. If they are sitting on their couch at home in the evening examining things, everything feels fast, but when they do this while walking during the day, on the bus, in the car, etc., they perceive it much slower,” he said.