“No such thing as too fast”

On Mastodon, Alex Russell, a product architect who’s worked on Chrome and Edge, and has focused on tech standards for a while: Once Upon A Time At Google, a team presented results that had confounded them: making the system load several times faster increased engagement somewhat, but in line with Tammy’s findings, engagement went way up for every 100ms improvement below the 1s threshold. Going fast enough to become “dial tone” changed user behaviour and expectations in a hugely positive way for the product. This sort of “no such thing as too fast until you prove it” lesson is everywhere. Phrasing it as “no such thing as too fast” is really interesting, and not something I encountered before. (The way I understand the “dial tone” remark is commenting on reliability of landline phones in the second half of last century. The landlines were extremely reliable and even came with their own power source; you could pick up the handset and the dial tone – the system’s confirmation it’s ready…