The key to making your software seem faster is simply to tell people that it is quicker, according to research from the organisation behind open-source browser Firefox.
Mozilla researchers wanted to know why Google鈥檚 Chrome internet browser had developed a dominant market share. In 2009, Firefox had a market share of 32 per cent, but this slipped steadily over the past decade and . Chrome is used by 66 per cent of internet users.
Rebecca Weiss and her colleagues asked 1495 participants to read one of three news articles. One article claimed that a Firefox update had made the software more usable, while another said that the browser was now 鈥渇aster, smoother, and higher-performing than competitors鈥�. A third control article was about self-driving cars.
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Subjects then watched videos of Chrome and Firefox carrying out simple tasks like opening a new tab or window and decided which was faster.
In the control group who read the self-driving car story, 39 per cent of people perceived Chrome to be faster, 31 per cent believed Firefox was quicker and 30 per cent saw no difference. But the group shown the article about Firefox performance was slightly more likely to endorse that browser as faster: 49 per cent rated Firefox as the quickest and just 24 per cent opted for Chrome. The article about usability produced results in between those of the control group and the group that read about browser performance.
The team says the results show that perceived performance can be boosted聽without actually making any technical improvements.
鈥淥ur big concern was we could sink all of our time into making this browser work better and better and better against all of these conventional engineering performance metrics, but if everyone is only hearing 鈥楥hrome is faster鈥�, 鈥楥hrome is faster鈥�, 鈥楥hrome is faster鈥�, classic psychology theory would predict that it will trump anything we do,鈥� says Weiss. 鈥淚t鈥檚 part of the underdog experience. Chrome鈥檚 from a wonderful place that has lots and lots of resources that we don鈥檛 have.鈥�
However, she adds that the purpose of the research shouldn鈥檛 be misunderstood as being about a rivalry between Firefox and Chrome.
鈥淯ltimately, our goal is that people should love the web, they should have the web they want,鈥� says Weiss. 鈥淎nd choice is part of that.鈥�
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