Website Response Times An Article by Jakob Nielsen www.nngroup.com Users really care about speed in interaction design...A snappy user experience beats a glamorous one, for the simple reason that people engage more with a site when they can move freely and focus on the content instead of on their endless wait. 0.1 seconds gives the feeling of instantaneous response. This level of responsiveness is essential to support the feeling of direct manipulation. 1 second keeps the user's flow of thought seamless. 10 seconds keeps the user's attention. A 10-second delay will often make users leave a site immediately. uxperformanceinteraction
Let the goals suggest themselves There are several ways to start the design process, depending on your nature and needs. You can start out by defining your goals, as precisely as possible, and then look at the site with these goals in mind. Or you can take the site with all its characteristics (both good and bad), and let goals suggest themselves. Of the two questions—"What can I make this land do?"—or—"What does this land have to give me?"—the first may lead to exploitation of the land without regard to long-term consequences, while the second to a sustained ecology guided by our intelligent control. Bill Mollison, Introduction to Permaculture Do not propose solutions goalsdesignsustainability