Unravelling the relationship between response time and user experience in mobile applications
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 18 May 2020
Issue publication date: 26 August 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the impact of response time on user experience for mobile applications and considers the moderating influence of gender and network environment on this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment was conducted with 50 young adults to evaluate their user experience of a mobile application that simulates variations in network environment and response time. User experience was evaluated based on the three constituent dimensions of tolerance, acceptance, and satisfaction.
Findings
Analytical results demonstrate that response time not only adversely affects user experience of mobile applications, but that this effect is not homogeneous across the three dimensions of tolerance, acceptance and satisfaction. The findings also illustrate that gender moderates the effect of response time on user experience, however, the negative influence is more salient for males than females, which is opposite to our hypothesis. The joint moderating influence of gender and network environment turned out to be partly significant.
Practical implications
By illuminating users' tolerance, acceptance, and satisfaction with varied response times, findings from this study can inform the design of mobile applications such that desired levels of user experience can be assured with minimum resources.
Originality/value
Although response time has been hailed as a key determinant of user experience for desktop applications, there is a paucity of studies that have investigated the impact of response time on user experience for mobile applications. Furthermore, prior research on response time neglects the multi-dimensional nature of user experience. This study bridges the above mentioned knowledge gaps by delineating user experience into its constituent dimensions and clarifying the effects of response time on each of these dimensions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper is based on research presented at the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, 2016 (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7797881/). The work described in this paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC: 71640034 and 71801204).Thank Shuang Shao, Wen Li, and Lei Zhou for assistance with the experiments.Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Citation
Yu, M., Zhou, R., Cai, Z., Tan, C.-W. and Wang, H. (2020), "Unravelling the relationship between response time and user experience in mobile applications", Internet Research, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 1353-1382. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-05-2019-0223
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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