Download Delay, Tolerable Wait Time, and Online Learning

Main Focus: Download Delay

The data on the effects of system response time on the end user are mixed, but appear to point toward an overall negative relation between system response time and user affective reaction; data on actual user performance are much less clear. Emurian (1991) found no link between SRT and performance when examining physiological responses to varying SRTs in video display terminals; Dannenbring (1983) found no effect for system response time on programmer’s performance and satisfaction while debugging programs; on the other hand, Guynes (1998) found that variable system response times and long mean (8.25 seconds) response times in document editing were associated with increased anxiety levels. Schleifer and Amick (1989) found that longer system response time associated with increased mood disturbances in a data entry task, and Barber and Lucas (1983) found that increased system response time was negatively related to user satisfaction with job characteristics, and the system. These negative relations between system response time and affective reactions to the computer system were also found by Wirtz and Bateson (1995) in a study of at-home banking, and by Rushinek and Rushinek (1986), who surveyed more than 4,000 computer users, and found that the single most important variable in satisfaction with the computer system was system response time.