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Designing and Engineering Time: The Psychology of Time Perception in Software
- By Steven C. Seow
- Published Apr 29, 2008 by Addison-Wesley Professional.
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Description
- Copyright 2008
- Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/4"
- Pages: 224
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-321-50918-8
- ISBN-13: 978-0-321-50918-5
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 research–including his own pioneering work–Dr. 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 timing–including 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 time–including 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 value–and 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 Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and wrote his master’s thesis on distortions in time perception. For more information about Steven Seow and his research, visit his website at www.StevenSeow.com.
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Extras
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Five Do's and Don'ts for Managing UI Time Perception
UI Responsiveness: Instantaneous, Immediate, Continuous, Captive
Sample Content
Online Sample Chapter
The Psychology of Time Perception in Software: Expressing Time in Your UI
Sample Pages
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xii
Chapter 1 Designing and Engineering Time . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 1
Chapter 2 Perception and Tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 3 User and System Response Times . . . . ... . . . . . . 33
Chapter 4 Responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Chapter 5 Detecting Timing Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
Chapter 6 Progress Indication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Chapter 7 Expressing Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
Chapter 8 User Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Chapter 9 Testing Time . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Chapter 10 Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147
Chapter 11 Violations . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193
Updates
Errata
| PrintNumber | ErrorLocation | Error | Correction | DateAdded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | p5 | Figure 1.2 off Figure 1.2 Examples of how seemingly innocuous wording in the UI (left dialog) or design (right dialog) can result in a less-than-optimal experience for the user |
fixed Figure 1.2 Examples of how seemingly innocuous wording in the UI (left dialog) or software design (right dialog) can result in a less-than-optimal experience for the user. |
9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p14 | Carroll, L., (2000). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. New York: Penguin Group. (Author’s note: This is where the rabbit hole term comes from. Online at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11.) | Carroll, L. (2000). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. New York: Penguin Group. (Author’s note: This is where the rabbit hole term comes from. Online at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11.) | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p51 | Figure 4.1 remove laptop and place server image | fixed | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p54 | Figure 4.3 2 in mc is too large | fixed | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p62 | Figure 4.8 Top: When a window minimizes instantly without any visual effects to the user, especially new ones, it appears as if it vanished. Bottom: When a little bit more time is taken to animate the shrinking of the window into a minimized state, users get a better mental grasp of what was done to the window and where it has gone. |
Figure 4.8 Top: When a window minimizes instantly without any visual effects, to the user, especially new ones, it appears as if it vanished. Bottom: When a little bit more time is taken to animate the shrinking of the window into a minimized state, users get a better mental grasp of what was done to the window and where it has gone. |
9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p62 | Figure 5.1 2nd dotted line needs to come to the front of curved line. | fixed | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p68 | Figure 5.2 D2. Dual Duration | Durations | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p70 | Paragraph starting with In layman’s terms, the ability to detect the subtlest difference between any two durations, according to the theory, is a constant ratio (for example, between 10 and 12, between 20 and 24, or between 3000 and 3600). should not be indented. |
fixed | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p81 | Figure 6.1: Screenshot at Time A and B should be reversed | fixed | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p84 | Figure 6.3: top part of image wrong | fixed | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p88 | Figure 6.5: 1. add comma after metric 2.meaningul should be meaningful |
fixed | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p105 | The conversation with my manger lasted no more than 4.3 minutes. | The conversation with my manager lasted no more than 4.3 minutes. | 9/12/2008 |
| 1 | p133 | Figure 9.5: Milliseconds (1/100 of a Sec) | Milliseconds (1/1000 of a Sec) | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p139 | Figure 9.8: Step 2 aligned. | fixed | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p143 | Figure 9.11: 5: 10 (Simplex) | (Simple) | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p149 | Figure 10.1: missing OK box | fixed | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p155 | Figure 10.6: 2 boxes have Keep Original Size twice. Remove second listing and put Reduce for Email. | fixed | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p161 | Figure 10.11: Align text with progression bar | fixed | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p162 | Figure 10.12: first image missing Cancel and OK buttons | fixed | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p177 | Figure 11.4: make dialog box smaller to reduce extra space. | fixed | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p181 | Figure 11.7: first box: remove second Keep original size with Reduce for Email and cap. | fixed | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p185 | Figure 11.11: make dialog box smaller to reduce extra space. | fixed | 9/15/2008 |
| 1 | p187 | Figure 11.12: make dialog box smaller to reduce extra space. | fixed | 9/15/2008 |
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