Tying Web Performance
Data to Human Behavior
Buddy Brewer
@bbrewer
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Buddy Brewer
@bbrewer
VP Engineering, SOASTA
Co-Founder, LogNormal
10 years in web performance
Wednesday, October 24, 12

How does performance
impact human behavior?
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Why Care About Real User Performance?
Slow Web Sites = Frustrated Users
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kplawver/1903240219/
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Why Care About Real User Performance?
Frustrated Users = Damage to Your Reputation
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Why Care About Real User Performance?
Frustrated Users = Lost Business
70%
59%
Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate
48%
36%
Load Time
25%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Page Load Time (seconds)
Wednesday, October 24, 12

How can I manage this?
Wednesday, October 24, 12

You need to measure real users
http://www.flickr.com/photos/criminalintent/97181432/
Wednesday, October 24, 12

The Case For Real User Measurement
TL;DR - It’s Better Than Synthetic
• Better browser coverage
• Better geographic coverage
• Better site coverage
• Better device coverage
• Ability to measure performance impact on
human behavior
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Synthetic Monitoring Marketing Analytics
Monitor
Requirements
RUM = single
source of truth
Development
Testing
Design
Deployment
Wednesday, October 24, 12

How Do I Measure Real Users?
Free and Commercial Options
We provide a few options:
Free - Boomerang.js / mPulse Lite
Commercial - mPulse (fka LogNormal)
There are others...
Wednesday, October 24, 12

What Should I Measure?
Let’s Run an Experiment
8 million pages
1.5 million visits
50 different dimensions
Wednesday, October 24, 12

very fast sessions had high bounce rates
70.00%
52.50%
35.00%
17.50%
0%
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
Wednesday, October 24, 12

bounce rate vs. load time
70.00%
52.50%
35.00%
17.50%
0%
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
Wednesday, October 24, 12

bounce rate vs. DOM interactive
70.00%
52.50%
35.00%
17.50%
0%
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5
Wednesday, October 24, 12

bounce rate vs. front end time
80.00%
60.00%
40.00%
20.00%
0%
0.5 2 3.5 5 6.5 8 9.5 11 12.5 14 15.5 17 18.5 20 21.5 23 24.5 26 27.5 29
Wednesday, October 24, 12

How can I analyze web site toxicity?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/3796822070
Wednesday, October 24, 12

LD50 - when do half my users bounce?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecosmopolitan/6117530924
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Web Site Median Lethal Dose
Point Where Bounce Rate Crosses 50%
70%
59%
Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate
48%
5.5 seconds
36%
Load Time
25%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Page Load Time (seconds)
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Bounce rate >=50%
Back end time 1.7 sec
DOM Loading 1.8 sec
DOM Interactive 2.75 sec
Front end time 3.5 sec
DOM Complete 4.75 sec
Load event 5.5 sec
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Browsers by Load Time
70.00%
52.50%
35.00%
LD50
IE: 3.6 sec
17.50%
Firefox: 5.6 sec
Chrome: 6.5 sec
0%
1 1.4 1.8 2.2 2.6 3 3.4 3.8 4.2 4.6 5 5.4 5.8 6.2 6.6 7 7.4 7.8 8.2 8.6 9 9.4 9.8 10.2 10.6 11 11.4 11.8 12.2 12.6 13 13.4 13.8 14.2 14.6 15
IE Chrome Firefox
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Browsers by DOM Interactive
90.00%
67.50%
45.00% LD50
22.50%
IE: 1.8 sec
Firefox: 3.1 sec
Chrome: 4.4 sec
0%
0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1 3.3 3.5 3.7 3.9 4.1 4.3 4.5 4.7 4.9 5.1 5.3 5.5 5.7 5.9 6.1 6.3 6.5 6.7 6.9 7.1 7.3 7.5 7.7 7.9 8.1 8.3 8.5 8.7 8.9 9.1 9.3 9.5 9.7 9.9
IE Chrome Firefox
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Countries by Load Time
90.00%
LD50
67.50%
DE: ? sec
US: 5.0 sec
45.00%
GB: 11.5 sec
CA: 13.5 sec
AU: ? sec
22.50%
0%
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 14 14.5 15
US CA DE AU GB
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Available Bandwidth
GB AU World
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Future directions
What is the LD50 for your site?
Other bounce rates? 40%? 30%?
Other variables? (critical content
visible, etc)
Other behaviors? Conversions,
revenue, pages per session, actions?
Wednesday, October 24, 12

Buddy Brewer @bbrewer
http://www.soasta.com/products/mpulse/
http://github.com/lognormal/boomerang
Wednesday, October 24, 12