Impact of Response Latency on User Behaviour in Mobile Web Search

TL;DR

This study investigates how response latency influences user experience in mobile web search, revealing that users tolerate longer delays than desktop users but become significantly frustrated beyond 7-10 seconds.

Contribution

The paper provides the first controlled analysis of response latency effects on mobile web search user experience, highlighting tolerance levels and thresholds for frustration.

Findings

Mobile users tolerate 4 times longer delays than desktop users.

Delays over 7-10 seconds significantly increase user frustration.

Long response times negatively impact subjective search experience.

Abstract

Traditionally, the efficiency and effectiveness of search systems have both been of great interest to the information retrieval community. However, an in-depth analysis of the interaction between the response latency and users' subjective search experience in the mobile setting has been missing so far. To address this gap, we conduct a controlled study that aims to reveal how response latency affects mobile web search. Our preliminary results indicate that mobile web search users are four times more tolerant to response latency reported for desktop web search users. However, when exceeding a certain threshold of 7-10 sec, the delays have a sizeable impact and users report feeling significantly more tensed, tired, terrible, frustrated and sluggish, all which contribute to a worse subjective user experience.