- Author:
- Steven C. Seow
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
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Index Terms
- Designing and Engineering Time: The Psychology of Time Perception in Software
Recommendations
Reviews
Larry Bernstein
If you design a Web application, and have read this book, you will understand how to make it easier to use and how to deal with a user's perception of your quality based on response time concerns. Your users may even love your design because you apply teachings found in the book. Seow has written an easy-to-read, perceptive book about the soft issues of human performance as related to using a computer. We all know that soft things are hard to get right, whereas hard things are easy. This book gives readers tips, supported by theory, on how to get it right. They are spread throughout the book. For example, do you know that it has been proven that the more choices you give users, the longer it takes them to make the right choice__?__ Do you know what Fitt's law is__?__ (Hint: It has to do with the time it takes a human to acquire a target from a distance.) Are you interested in examples of the Hick-Hyman law for the effects of workload on user response time__?__ If not, you should be. This book will give you readable insights into this vital area of human-computer interface technology. I wish there was a summary or checklist of the laws, tips, and design rules, in one place. Perhaps the author can supply one in the next edition. The index could be expanded too. Otherwise, I found this a useful and insightful book. Real software engineers will read it. Online Computing Reviews Service
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