Internet delay effects: how users perceive quality, organization, and ease of use of information

In this paper we report the results of an investigation designed to determine the effects of Internet delays on users perceptions of ease of locating information, organization of information, quality of information, and navigation problems. The results demonstrated user sensitivity to delays. As expected, for text-and-graphics documents, shorter delays provoked more favorable responses. However, for text-only documents, the shorter the delay, the less favorably a document was viewed. The results indicated that users may prefer multi-media web sites but are unwilling to tolerate the substantial network delays often associated with delivering graphics, video, animation, and audio.