The Vision of a Latency-Free World
Jens Meiert, October 1, 2007 / February 5, 2008.
This entry is filed under User Experience.
Let us fight latency. Our industry alone certainly knows more than those two popular factors responsible for a lot of wasted time, unpunctuality in general and unnecessarily high load time in specific – impairing users –, but it’s important to always and at all costs avoid wait.
I find it amazing that we all accept waiting time so willingly: How many “loading …” messages did we already see when using applications and playing computer or console games? How often did we already need to stand in a queue? How many hours did we already waste time waiting at the doctor’s? I am also concerned by the naturalness people expect other people to wait; how dare anyone let another person wait at all?
This might sound very idealistic, but I find it important that we don’t accept that other people waste our time and that we also respect the time of other people. It might be unavoidable that there is wait, but it can certainly be reduced just about everywhere. For a second, just imagine that you go anywhere and are served immediately, or that you switch on your working environment and everything’s available immediately, or that there just is no red light when there is no traffic … You certainly know what I mean. Let’s not waste so much of our and other people’s time.
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Comments
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On October 1, 2007, 15:19 CEST, Yishay Cohen said:
first of all, nicely written. here is my view: a gift wrapping is latency. but is it bad? when we wrap something in gift wrap we want her to be delayed. is it wrong? if we get there without ever stopping in red lights, when will we have the time to make the U turn?
i think latency is not always bad. at times, it can be used and become useful.
YC -
On October 1, 2007, 17:26 CEST, Jens Meiert said:
Hi Yishay, that’s interesting … I agree, gifts do certainly mean an exception to the rule. In the (rare?) cases where latency creates tolerated or even desired tension, it appears to be a “legitimate problem”.
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On October 1, 2007, 21:01 CEST, Markus Petschenig said:
I think waiting at the doctor´s could also be an exception – related to your example, because there is a possibility to meet other people (social contact!) – no matter they have a physical problem or not. This means that it depends on the situation of latency, i would say.
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On October 2, 2007, 0:40 CEST, Steffen said:
Last thursday: Waiting at the airport for my 4 hours delayed flight, I had a similar feeling about waiting. But with a little more anger.
I just want to add important measures, if waiting time is inevitable:
- provide dependable information about the overall waiting time - In my case, Lufthansa extended it every hour for another hour.
- Don’t block me.
- Entertain me. And don’t misunderstand me: Your screenshot above really looks like fun.
- As time is money, just don’t forget to hand out the money. -
On October 3, 2007, 17:18 CEST, Jens Meiert said:
Well, Markus, latency probably always caters for something that could make something desirable happen … However, at least I would prefer to immediately see the doctor instead of probably getting to know other people who are don’t feel good
Steffen, important points …! Wait shouldn’t occur at all, but when it does, there are certainly measures that might reduce its negative effects. “Hand out the money”
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On October 11, 2007, 13:30 CEST, Stephan said:
Sometimes its a good lesson, if we have to wait somewhere. It teach´s us patience.
We learn that the world doesn´t revolve around us. It helps us to stay felxible.
Well, I believe its important to be forced to wait a bit once in a while. But not by a computer.
One more reason to use a mac. Saves a lot of time, if you don´t mess it up, like I do sometimes. -
On February 10, 2008, 23:20 CET, Lazar said:
‘…just imagine that you go anywhere and are served immediately…’
That requires someone waiting for you to come so that he/she can serve you, and therefore their waiting time would require higher service fees.
For cost-effectiveness, you have to consider Poisson distribution.
I’ve heard a nice story about Portugal (or was it Spain?) service. You go to a restaurant and wait for half an hour to order. Than after another half an hour waiter will ask you to remind him what you ordered. They are very laid back. If you try to complain, they will kick you out of their restaurant. After all, you are at their spot, about to be served by them, and if you don’t like it ….
Yes, sure, you are the one paying them, but money is not everything, nor can it buy everything!
I kind of like that, as it is so different from how waiters are in many other countries (on West at least). Overly polite. Actually often fakely polite!
Anyhow, here is a solution for waiting. If you are at home, learn multitasking. If you are outside, either communicate with people around you as often you can hear and learn interesting things, or bring a book to read or notebook to write your thoughts in it. I personally am rarely bored as I often have things to think about.
