Mid Sweden University

In this study,   the purpose is to measure how much the response time affect the effectiveness   and usability of the user on e-commerce pages, and to evaluate whether   displaying a loading symbol affects the user's opinion positively or   negatively. This study is based on three theories, Nielsen's (2010) theory of   how response time affect users effectiveness, Galetta et al. (2004) theory of   how response time affect users' attitude towards the side and Hong et al.'s   (2013) theory if users' perception of the response time is influenced by   displaying a symbol while loading. The empirical method used to collect the   data is two different quantitative methods. The data that form the basis of   the study has been collected by allowing users to carry out test purchases via   an e-commerce site and via a survey that was shown at the end of the   purchase. A total of 126 users chose to start the test, of which 96 chose to   complete the test purchase and responded to the survey. The users were   divided into six different groups, each group receiving a fixed delay   assigned as constant throughout the test purchase. The fixed delays assigned   to the different groups were 0 ms, 2000 ms, 4000 ms, 6000 ms, 8000 ms, 10 000   ms and 12 000 ms. The result found in the study is that all three theories   could be validated using the empirical study that was used. The conclusion   that can be drawn is the user's efficiency decreases as response time   increase. The users' attitude towards the side decreases as response time   increase. The loading symbol has a positive impact on users regarding long   response time, as it has a negative impact on those users with short response   time. The breaking point where the majority of users' efficiency dropped, the   negative attitude increased and the loading symbols had the greatest impact   occurred at 6000 ms delay.