Study: Poor, slow web images affect engagement

Tel Aviv, Israel - Default image formats, used by up to 95% of all websites, do not deliver the highest level of user satisfaction. According to a new study of moment-by-moment emotional responses in universal facial expressions of more than 250 participants conducted by NeuroStrata on behalf of application delivery/security provider Radware, 65% of participants have felt frustrated by images taking too long to load.



In addition, 50% of participants feel that the way in which images load has an effect on their web browsing experience. Typical web pages generally use two of the three image formats used in the study, a standard lossless GIF file and progressive JPEG. The third image file used was a newly developed file, using a proprietary rendering format not yet available to the public. In the report, this new rendering technique was clearly favored by those who were tested compared to the two typical formats.



“Humans are extremely visual. Imagery grabs our attention, evokes a response and sustains our emotional engagement,” said Tammy Everts, performance manager for Radware. “As images comprise more than 50% of the weight for a typical web page, this neuroscientific study shows that serving images faster on your website does have a direct and measurable impact on the user experience.”