We hear all the time from web designers that they spend countless hours and resources trying to speed up their web pages' download time because they believe that people are turned off by slow-loading pages. Their concerns have been amplified by experts like Jakob Nielsen who asserts that users become frustrated after waiting too long for pages to load. It makes sense that a slow loading page is unusable. We know that if a page takes 2 hours to load, chances are people will abandon their tasks. But when does download time go from too slow to fast enough?
Nielsen reports that the home pages of the most popular sites he studied took an average of 8 seconds to download, whereas the pages of the less popular sites took an average of 19 seconds to download. He therefore concludes that users will be annoyed or frustrated by pages that take any longer than about 10 seconds to load.
When we began our research, we thought we would find a strong relationship between page download time and usability: sites with faster download times would be more usable than slower sites. We also expected that users would be consistent in their ratings of site speed, and that these ratings would correlate strongly with the actual speed of the sites.
To test these predictions, we studied 10 different web sites over a 56 kbps modem. On these sites, we had users perform their own personal tasks; each user did something that was interesting and meaningful to her. No two users performed the same tasks on any site. For each of the sites, we had users rate how fast they felt the site was. We called the users' measures their "perceived speed" of the site. Later, we watched videotapes of the studies and measured the actual download times of the pages.
We started by confirming one of our hypotheses: all users rated the speed of the 10 web sites consistently; they thought Amazon.com, REI.com, and L.L. Bean.com were the fastest and About.com was the slowest. Despite having performed different tasks on these sites, users were consistent in their reports of perceived speed.
Our other finding, though, took us entirely by surprise. When we looked at the actual download speeds of the sites we tested, we found that there was no correlation between these and the perceived speeds reported by our users. About.com, rated slowest by our users, was actually the fastest site (average: 8 seconds). Amazon.com, rated as one of the fastest sites by users, was really the slowest (average: 36 seconds).
There was still another surprising finding from our study: a strong correlation between perceived download time and whether users successfully completed their tasks on a site. There was, however, no correlation between actual download time and task success, causing us to discard our original hypothesis. It seems that, when people accomplish what they set out to do on a site, they perceive that site to be fast.
When we thought about these findings, they made a lot of sense to us. If people can't find what they want on a site, they will regard the site as a waste of time (and slow). But, when users successfully complete tasks on a site, they will perceive their time there as having been well spent.
Jakob Nielsen tells designers to focus efforts on improving actual page download times on their sites. But what we're seeing leads us to wonder if it's worth the resources to make web pages load like lightning. Instead, we're wondering: When users are complaining about the download speed of your site, what are they actually complaining about? Are you better off making the site load faster or ensuring that users complete their tasks? •
Monday, December 8, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
ENTERTAINMENT
Examples of entertainment
Animation
Wikipe-tan sailor fuku is a character in Japanese animation.Animation provides moving images that are generated by an artist, in contrast to the live action normally used in motion pictures. It is typically accompanied by a sound track consisting of recordings of live actors. Animation is often used in computer-based forms of entertainment.
Cartoons are a comedic form of animation.[2] Anime or TV manga refers to animation originating from Japan in the Occidental use of the word. In Japan the word refers to all animation. It may contain adult themes and futuristic locations.[3]
Cinema
Cinema provides moving pictures as an art form. Cinema may also be called films or movies.[4] A film produces an illusion of motion by presenting a series of individual image frames in rapid succession. Films are produced by a crew that handle the cameras, sets and lighting. The cast consists of actors who appear in front of the camera and follow a script. After the film has been shot, it is edited then distributed to theaters or television studios for viewing.
Theatre
Theatre encompasses live performance such as plays, musicals, farces, monologues and pantomimes.
Circus
Circus acts include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, trapeze acts, hula hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists.[5]
Circuses are a great place for families.
Comedy
Comedy provides laughter and amusement. The audience is taken by surprise, by the parody or satire of an unexpected effect or an opposite expectations of their cultural beliefs. Slapstick film, one-liner joke, observational humor are forms of comedy which have developed since the early days of jesters and traveling minstrels.[6]
Comics Felix the Cat Comic StripComics comprise of text and drawings which convey an entertaining narrative.[7] Several famous comics revolve around super heroes such as Superman, Batman. Marvel Comics and DC Comics are two publishers of comic books. Manga is the Japanese word for comic and print cartoons.
Caricature is a graphical entertainment. The purpose may vary from merely putting smile on the viewers face, to raising social awareness, to highlighting the moral vices of a person being caricaturised.
Dance
DancingDance refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music,[8] used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting. Dance includes ballet, cancan, Charleston, Highland fling, folk dance, sun dance, modern dance, polka and many more.[9]
Reading
Reading comprises the interpretation of written symbols.[10] An author, poet or playwright sets out a composition for publication to provide education or diversion for the reader. The format includes paperback or hard cover books, magazines, periodicals, puzzle books, crossword magazines and coloring books. Fantasy, horror, science fiction and mystery are forms of reading entertainment.
Games
Playing BingoGames provide relaxation and diversion usually following a rule set. Games may be played by one person for their own entertainment, or by a group of people. Games may be played for achievement or money such as gambling or bingo. Racing, chess or checkers may develop physical or mental prowess. Games may be geared for children, or may be played outdoors such as lawn bowling. Equipment may be necessary to play the game such as a deck of cards for card games, or a board and markers for board games such as Monopoly, or backgammon.[11] A few may be ball games, Blind man's bluff, board games, card games, children's games, Croquet, Frisbee, Hide and seek, Number games, Paintball, and Video games to name a few.
Music
Musical Piece: Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony no. 5 in C minorMusic is an art form combining rhythm, melody, harmony for entertainment, ceremonial or religious purposes.[12]
Other forms of entertainmentConcert Lecture Magic Sports Mass media Revue Television Radio Storytelling
Other forms of entertainment
Concert
Lecture
Magic Sports
Mass media
Revue
Television
Radio
Storytelling
Animation
Wikipe-tan sailor fuku is a character in Japanese animation.Animation provides moving images that are generated by an artist, in contrast to the live action normally used in motion pictures. It is typically accompanied by a sound track consisting of recordings of live actors. Animation is often used in computer-based forms of entertainment.
Cartoons are a comedic form of animation.[2] Anime or TV manga refers to animation originating from Japan in the Occidental use of the word. In Japan the word refers to all animation. It may contain adult themes and futuristic locations.[3]
Cinema
Cinema provides moving pictures as an art form. Cinema may also be called films or movies.[4] A film produces an illusion of motion by presenting a series of individual image frames in rapid succession. Films are produced by a crew that handle the cameras, sets and lighting. The cast consists of actors who appear in front of the camera and follow a script. After the film has been shot, it is edited then distributed to theaters or television studios for viewing.
Theatre
Theatre encompasses live performance such as plays, musicals, farces, monologues and pantomimes.
Circus
Circus acts include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, trapeze acts, hula hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists.[5]
Circuses are a great place for families.
Comedy
Comedy provides laughter and amusement. The audience is taken by surprise, by the parody or satire of an unexpected effect or an opposite expectations of their cultural beliefs. Slapstick film, one-liner joke, observational humor are forms of comedy which have developed since the early days of jesters and traveling minstrels.[6]
Comics Felix the Cat Comic StripComics comprise of text and drawings which convey an entertaining narrative.[7] Several famous comics revolve around super heroes such as Superman, Batman. Marvel Comics and DC Comics are two publishers of comic books. Manga is the Japanese word for comic and print cartoons.
Caricature is a graphical entertainment. The purpose may vary from merely putting smile on the viewers face, to raising social awareness, to highlighting the moral vices of a person being caricaturised.
Dance
DancingDance refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music,[8] used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting. Dance includes ballet, cancan, Charleston, Highland fling, folk dance, sun dance, modern dance, polka and many more.[9]
Reading
Reading comprises the interpretation of written symbols.[10] An author, poet or playwright sets out a composition for publication to provide education or diversion for the reader. The format includes paperback or hard cover books, magazines, periodicals, puzzle books, crossword magazines and coloring books. Fantasy, horror, science fiction and mystery are forms of reading entertainment.
Games
Playing BingoGames provide relaxation and diversion usually following a rule set. Games may be played by one person for their own entertainment, or by a group of people. Games may be played for achievement or money such as gambling or bingo. Racing, chess or checkers may develop physical or mental prowess. Games may be geared for children, or may be played outdoors such as lawn bowling. Equipment may be necessary to play the game such as a deck of cards for card games, or a board and markers for board games such as Monopoly, or backgammon.[11] A few may be ball games, Blind man's bluff, board games, card games, children's games, Croquet, Frisbee, Hide and seek, Number games, Paintball, and Video games to name a few.
Music
Musical Piece: Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony no. 5 in C minorMusic is an art form combining rhythm, melody, harmony for entertainment, ceremonial or religious purposes.[12]
Other forms of entertainmentConcert Lecture Magic Sports Mass media Revue Television Radio Storytelling
Other forms of entertainment
Concert
Lecture
Magic Sports
Mass media
Revue
Television
Radio
Storytelling
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