750 Words on Speed

“Im faster than I look.”

I used to play lacrosse. I retired about 3 or so years ago. I suffered some paralysis in the my right leg which makes it difficult for my body to follow what my mind commands it to do. My quickness and speed have been reduced to the point where I just no longer enjoy playing. My speed is gone.

Yesterday, I was at the office until 8pm. In fact, most of my team was there (not to mention the folks in the UK, where it was 3am) as we go ready to release the next version of our Alpha Air App. (For those that dont know what I do, I run a company called Graphic.ly, which provides the ability for people to buy, read and discuss digital comics. Want to try it? I heard that there might be a download link somewhere around here.) I enjoy release day. Its the end of a solid week of work. The team has busted their asses to produce something new and interesting. Its fantastic.

This week, I launched our AIR app, and the first thought “Man, this is slow” was filled with disappointment. I asked if the office internet was running slow. Yes it was. Good times…

The night prior, I had dinner with a startup CEO from Israel, who is contemplating a move to Boulder. His startup is in the search space, and we got to talking about Lijit (where I spent two years helping grow the publisher and user base). He asked if I had any advice.

“Make it fast.” I replied.

I remember using my first computers when I was a kid (TRS-80, thank you very much!) where I could turn it on, have my mom take me to a movie and dinner, come home, take a nap, write the great American novel, and then wait for it to load.

Computers and speed were not synonymous. Then the 286 was followed by the 386, which was followed by the 486 processor. All of a sudden, computers became the hot rods of the 1990s. And, to stamp the arrival of the need for speed, in 1998, Google launched and in the upper right corner, they listed, full of hubris, the time it took to return a query. 0.08 sec for 2,000,000 results! Google would proudly proclaim.

And the need for speed exploded.

Usability experts started to explain that a website had 8 seconds to capture a user. Even worse, users began to demand speed. The choices were too many, there is no need for anyone to speed time on anything. And it wasnt just speed of the web applications. It became speed of information and communication. Email became too slow. IM became too slow. Twitter now is too slow.

Speed. Speed. Speed. Speed. Its all that matters.

Now, I look at the Graphic.ly app, which, at its core is a comic book reader, and I think, “the activity stream is loading slow.” Of course, by slow, I mean 1-2 seconds. By slow, I just mean that I notice it.

Paul Buchkeit in a post about the iPad wrote:

I’m not sure, but one thing I’ve noticed is that I spend more time browsing the web from my iPhone than from my laptop. I’m not entirely sure why, but part of it is the simplicity. My iPhone is ready to use in under 1/2 second, while my laptop always takes at least a few seconds to wake up, and then there’s a bunch of stuff going on that distracts me.

While Paul mentions that the difference between <.5 seconds and 1-2 seconds in load time was a major factor, he does mention the importance of simplicity. Given he worked at Google, its not a surprise that speed and simplicity are at the forefront of his mind (one can see it in the design and functionality of Friendfeed, founded by Paul), but what surprised me was that I wasnt surprised that speed was a factor in device choice.

As I sit here with Joe Stump, founder of SimpleGeo, and am watching his excitement at the speed his product can return information, its become extremely clear.

Speed is no longer just a function of good code, or slick design. Speed has become a feature, and a core feature at that.

We need to manage speed the same way we manage friend finding, replying, updating and any of the other 1,000s of other features that exist in the products we are building.

Speed no longer kills. Speed is now required for life.

word count: 741