There are two speed metrics: 1) based on actual pageweight — you have offloaded some weight (sharing with Picassa); and 2) perceived load time (page rendering or recognition). As long as you are “perceived” as under 2 seconds you are fine.
Google owns Picassa. They are using good technology to speed up the image “delivery”. You benefit from their expertise and wonderfulness. This is a good example of benefiting from cloud services.
I classify speed as “obstruction” when it is bad. It’s weight is twice any other factor. You have zero UX after 9 seconds. It doesn’t matter how beautiful or desirable the content is. People will not tolerate a slow load. You’ve ruined the experience. Like kissing with bad breath, it’s memorable for the wrong reason. The first-impression is ruined. Obviously, instant loads of under 1 seconds are the best. Speed is then transparent.
Now try your tablet speed on a commute or remote location –not near a home wireless router. :) A real test of mobile user environment.
The 2-second threshold is not an “Internet” created parameter. It has been proven for decades a threshold of human tolerance for presentations. In other words, it’s more classic (hardwired) than fad (habit). People ARE becoming more impatient and intolerant but only when the 2-seconds is violated. Their annoyance is more pronounced after 2 second waits. Up until then everything was fine.
Like McDonald’s has shown American’s will wait 5 minutes for food. Then they get more and more agitated with the wait and will even leave or make threats. That is for food. It’s different for pages.
www.useit.com/papers/responsetime.html
If you liked this tutorial, please raise your hand. :)