How a Slow Website Is Costing You Customers (with Data)

1: Visibility of System Status

The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.

When users know the current system status, they learn the outcome of their prior interactions and determine next steps. Predictable interactions create trust in the product as well as the brand.

Tips

• Prioritize your effort: Prevent high-cost errors first, then little frustrations.

• Avoid slips by providing helpful constraints and good defaults.

• Prevent mistakes by removing memory burdens, supporting undo, and warning your users.

2: Match Between the System and the Real World

The way you should design depends very much on your specific users. Terms, concepts, icons, and images that seem perfectly clear to you and your colleagues may be unfamiliar or confusing to your users.

When a design’s controls follow real-world conventions and correspond to desired outcomes (called natural mapping), it’s easier for users to learn and remember how the interface works. This helps to build an experience that feels intuitive.

Tips

• Ensure that users can understand meaning without having to go look up a word’s definition.

• Never assume your understanding of words or concepts will match that of your users.

• User research will uncover your users' familiar terminology, as well as their mental models around important concepts.

3: User Control and Freedom

Users often perform actions by mistake. They need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted action without having to go through an extended process.

When it's easy for people to back out of a process or undo an action, it fosters a sense of freedom and confidence. Exits allow users to remain in control of the system and avoid getting stuck and feeling frustrated.

Tips

1. Support Undo and Redo.

2. Show a clear way to exit the current interaction, like a Cancel button

3. Make sure the exit is clearly labeled and discoverable.

When it's easy for people to back out of a process or undo an action, it fosters a sense of freedom and confidence. Exits allow users to remain in control of the system and avoid getting stuck and feeling frustrated.

Conclusions

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