Web performance is user experience

Think about how you search for things on the Web. How quick are you to close a tab and go to the next search engine result if a site takes too long to load? If you’re searching for local weather or news, how likely is it that you’ll return to a site that waits forever to show relevant information on your screen? As you run errands and check your phone, how likely are you to have the patience to endure long load times as you try to check your email, compare prices, or search for directions? The less time you have, the higher your expectations are for a site to load quickly.

Page speed is increasingly important for websites. If you’re looking for a page load time benchmark for your site, this is it: users expect pages to load in two seconds, and after three seconds, up to 40% of users will abandon your site (http://bit.ly/1ttKspI). Moreover, 85% of mobile users expect sites to load at least as fast or faster than sites on their desktop (http://bit.ly/1ttKCO3). As you design and build a website, or as you examine your existing site, how are you stacking up against these expectations?

Web performance is user experience. As you design and develop a new site, you’ll consider many components of its user experience: layout, hierarchy, intuitiveness, ease of use, and more. Your site’s experience determines how much your audience trusts your brand, returns to your site, and shares it with others. Page load time and how fast your site feels is a large part ...