Speed thrills

When I launch an app, I want it to load fast. When I book an Uber, I want the ETA to be small. When I order food at a restaurant, I want it to be served as soon as possible. When I download or upload files, I always wish the transfer speed was more. Heck, even when I am withdrawing money from an ATM, I want it to dispense cash fast. Yes, there are a few cases where speed isn’t ideal (drive safe) but most of the times, it just is so important.

Why is speed crucial? Because, it saves time. We can move on to do other things in the time saved. Personally, I feel it gives a sense of completion very quickly. When I check items in my to-do list as done, I feel a sense of achievement. Who doesn’t like clearing up their to-do list as fast as possible? The feeling of gettings things done fast kind of liberates from the pressure of getting things done in the first place.

Speed is way more important in technology. We get frustrated when the Wi-Fi is slow. As someone rightly said — No Wi-Fi is better than slow Wi-Fi. You can gauge the importance of speed from the fact that nearly half of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and they tend to abandon a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds (According to surveys done by Akamai and Gomez.com). We hate a sluggish app as much as we hate waiting in queues. Of course, when it comes to apps, speed is dictated by other factors as well — your network speed, your device specs and a few other things. But, the important thing is that speed should be optimised with every line of code written for the app. So much so that even when the other conditions are not very ideal, it should work fast enough to not cause annoyance to the user. For example, a heavy UI will significantly dampen your efforts of making a fast app with a delightful UX. For the more technical ones, here is a good post on how to optimise your Android app for speed.

While working at Newton, I’ve innumerable times come across user feedback mentioning that one of their favorite things about the app is how fast it works. A lot of users also love the simple UI of the app. With this simple UI combined with some tremendous engineering work, speed has been built in the DNA of Newton.

Focus on speed does not mean neglecting other things. Accuracy comes before speed. But, after you get the basics done right, speed becomes the most important feature.

If you agree, you may clap (not slow claps).