Time Scales of UX: From 0.1 Seconds to 100 Years

0.1   Seconds

Millisecond UX is the realm of perceptual psychology. Since the human brain doesn’t change, these time limits don’t change either. ...

1 Second

Subsecond response times allow the user to maintain a seamless flow of thought. You can tell there’s a delay, so you’ll feel that the computer (rather than yourself) is generating the outcome. ...

10 Seconds

10 seconds is the maximum delay before the user’s attention drifts. It’s incredibly taxing to stay focused and alert in the absence of activity, but users can keep their attention on the goal for about 10 seconds. ...

1 Minute

If people like the first page they encounter when visiting a website, they may stay longer and visit more pages. Even so, most website visits last 2–4 minutes.

Internet videos must also be short: viewing numbers drop off a cliff after a few minutes. ...

10 Minutes

If a website is excellent and solves users’ problems, their visit may stretch to 10 minutes. Rarely longer, though this does happen.

1 hour...