With longer load times, motivation is diminished by approx 10% for every 400ms. This roughly equates to a drop in performance of 50% if the load times are 6 seconds or more when compared with 3 seconds.
When faster than 3 seconds, the opposite is true. Motivation increases by approx 10% every 200ms. If load times are 2 seconds or less, performance often increases by 50%.
When a user is motivated, they will happily convert their site session into a positive outcome like completing a purchase or opting to become a lead. Conversely, a user without motivation will not.
One way a user loses motivation is by experiencing long page load times.
Our research shows that an interval of 3 seconds is neutral. When following a link that takes 3 seconds to load content, the user motivation in most cases will not be affected.