The document discusses findings from analyzing performance data from 8 million web pages and 1.5 million visits across 50 dimensions. It shows that very fast load times correlate with high bounce rates, and identifies load time thresholds at which bounce rates exceed 50% for different browsers. These "LD50" thresholds are 3.6 seconds for IE, 5.6 seconds for Firefox, and 6.5 seconds for Chrome. The document also analyzes performance trends by country, with Germany, the US, the UK, and Canada each having different average load time thresholds. It concludes by discussing potential areas for future analysis related to user behavior and performance.

1. Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 1

2. The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we
found in RUM
Buddy Brewer, Philip Tellis
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 2

3. Jean-Antoine Nollet
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 3

4. Mr. Souders
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 4

5. https://github.com/lognormal/boomerang/
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 5

6. Never underestimate the bandwidth of a mail horse
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 6

7. World-wide bandwidth
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 7

8. What do users expect?
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 8

9. Gold or Bronze?
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 9

10. What delighted users a few years ago is now an expected
baseline, the absence of which will frustrate.
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 10

11. Should you delight?
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 11

12. Or frustrate?
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 12

13. Delighting changes the baseline
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 13

14. Delighting changes the baseline
(Frustrating does too, but we don’t want to go there)
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 13

15. So where’s the web today?
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 14

16. Log-Normal Distribution
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 15

17. Log-Normal Distribution
The logarithm of the x-axis follows a Normal distribution
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 15

18. Log-Normal Distribution
Performance data does not always follow a "pure" Log-Normal
distribution
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 16

19. Look at the entire spread
...
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 17

20. Look at the entire spread
which often approaches an infinite width
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 17

21. • 0.8% of hits are fake/abusive
• 0.2-0.5% of hits are from a stale cache
• 0.1% of hits are absurd
• Timestamps in the future (or past depending on how you
interpret it)
• Bots ignore robots.txt across domains
• "Interesting" caches/copies
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 18

22. Even with beacons, you need to sanitize your input
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 19

23. Once you get past the cruft, you can really measure users
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 20

24. How does performance
impact human behavior?
Wednesday, October 3, 12

25. 8 million pages
1.5 million visits
50 different dimensions
Wednesday, October 3, 12

26. 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 3, 12

27. 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 3, 12

28. 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 3, 12

29. 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 3, 12

30. is my web site performance toxic to my
users?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/3796822070
Wednesday, October 3, 12

31. LD50 - when do half the users bounce?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecosmopolitan/6117530924
Wednesday, October 3, 12

32. 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 3, 12

33. 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 3, 12

34. 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 3, 12

35. Countries by Load Time
90.00%
67.50%
LD50
DE: ? sec
45.00% US: 5.0 sec
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 3, 12

36. Available Bandwidth
GB AU World
Wednesday, October 3, 12

37. 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,
when do people make tea?
Wednesday, October 3, 12

38. Questions?
Buddy Brewer @bbrewer
Philip Tellis @bluesmoon
Wednesday, October 3, 12

39. Credits
• Usain Bolt – Sum_of_Mark on flickr
• Douglas Mail Carrier – Svadilfari on flickr
• Angel Delight – Auntie P on flickr
• Frustrated – Kevin Lawver on flickr
• Jean-Antoine Nollet – (Public Domain) Wikipedia
• 100 metre dash – on NY Times
Velocity EU 2012 / 2012-10-03 The 3.5s dash for attention and other stuff we found in RUM 21