Designing and engineering time: the psychology of time perception in software

Abstract

Build Applications, Websites, and Software Solutions that Feel Faster, More Efficient, and More Considerate of Users Time! One hidden factor powerfully influences the way users react to your software, hardware, User Interfaces (UI), or web applications: how those systems utilize users time. Now, drawing on the nearly 40 years of human computer interaction researchincluding his own pioneering workDr. Steven Seow presents state-of-the-art best practices for reflecting users subjective perceptions of time in your applications and hardware. Seow begins by introducing a simple model that explains how users perceive and expend time as they interact with technology. He offers specific guidance and recommendations related to several key aspects of time and timingincluding user tolerance, system responsiveness, progress indicators, completion time estimates, and more. Finally, he brings together proven techniques for impacting users perception of time drawn from multiple disciplines and industries, ranging from psychology to retail, animal research to entertainment. Discover how time and timing powerfully impact user perception, emotions, and behavior Systematically make your applications more considerate of users time Avoid common mistakes that consistently frustrate or infuriate users Manage user perceptions and tolerance, and build systems that are perceived as faster Optimize flow to make users feel more productive, empowered, and creative Make reasonable and informed tradeoffs that maximize limited development resources Learn how to test usability issues related to timeincluding actual vs. perceived task duration Designing and Engineering Time is for every technology developer, designer, engineer, architect, usability specialist, manager, and marketer. Using its insights and techniques, technical and non-technical professionals can work together to build systems and applications that provide far more valueand create much happier users. Steven C. Seow has a unique combination of experience in both experimental psychology and software usability. He joined Microsoft as a User Researcher after completing his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Brown University with a research focus on human timing and information theory models of human performance. Seow holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and wrote his masters thesis on distortions in time perception. For more information about Steven Seow and his research, visit his website at www.StevenSeow.com. informit.com/aw