Chapter 2. Perception and Tolerance
Beyond actual and objective timing, it is also important to consider what users perceive and how much they are willing to tolerate. For example, a three-minute download can feel like five minutes, but users may only be willing to tolerate one minute. This chapter discusses the importance of differentiating between perceived durations and actual durations and describes the role of user tolerance.
Perception and Tolerance
Your users are complaining that some process in your solution is unacceptably slow. You run a performance test and determine that everything is performing as specified. Nevertheless, you obligingly spend several days to tweak your solution and make the process a little faster. You optimistically ...
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