Inspired by "Is coffee a good excuse for a slow application start-up time?" I tried to look for examples where having higher speeds could be bad for the user experience but I couldn't find any.
Are there any scenarios where faster {startup times, interactions, animations, etc} can harm the user experience? Do we always have to optimize looking for the highest speed?
Answer
I know some people advocate introducing a deliberate delay after certain actions in order to make it feel like some sort of processing has happened. Consider a 'save' function for example. Even if the system is able to save changes almost instantly without delay, introducing an artificial delay may well instil confidence in the user that their changes really have been saved. This is based on the idea that people are accustomed to computers "taking a while to think" when performing certain actions.
Here's a real-world example of how Coinstar used this idea: Adding delays to increase perceived value: does it work?
Other than this, I'm sure we all introduce subtle delays in one way or another. One example is a dropdown menu that opens and closes based on mouse hover. It is often necessary to introduce a delay so that the menu doesn't open immediately when the mouse pointer passes over it on the way to something else, and equally so that it doesn't close immediately if the mouse pointer accidentally moves away momentarily.
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