⚡ Doherty Threshold:
Ensures systems react quickly to keep users interested.
Airbnb
Lazy loading
Pokémon Go
Loading tips
Duolingo
A dancing bird
This was the outcome of a study from the 1970s, by Walter Doherty and Ahrvind Thadani—so it's possible that in the modern day, people expect software to be even faster.
✅ Churn
People will churn from slow experiences.
This happens in a non-linear fashion. i.e., people will tolerate a small amount of latency, but then drop-off fairly rapidly.
✅ Attention & interest
Slow interfaces (or loading screens) will lower their attention and interest.
✅ Discomfort & frustration
In some instances, it can actually be uncomfortable to wait.
e.g., if you'd just entered your credit card information to buy event tickets, and the interface was slow. You'd be worrying that your tickets had been sold to someone else.
✅ Happiness & enjoyment
Airbnb use lazy loading blocks brilliantly, for almost every component on their site.
Instead of sitting and staring at a blank screen, they'll render the structure, and use subtle animations to keep the page visually interesting.
Video games (like Pokémon Go) will often show short 'tips' for the player to read while the game loads.
This helps mask the loading time, by giving the user something to do.
During most loading screens, Duolingo will not only show a 'tip', but also an animation of a dancing bird.
It's not an animation that'll win an Oscar, but it's enough to put a smile on your face and fill the downtime.
