Sometimes speed is a feature, not a goal

Is faster always better? We often assume so: our technology revolution is powered by faster processors, faster storage and faster networks, and we use them to build faster experience.

But faster is not always better in the field of user experience.

I realised this recently, when I bought a new e-reader (I won’t mention the brand, but you know what it is).

I have been using e-readers for many years, and have built a library of several hundred books. As soon as I had powered up the device, connected to the network and registered my account, I looked for the option to download my entire library.

And I couldn’t find it. (I must admit that I didn’t look for very long: my patience for scanning menus is not great). So, slightly frustrated, I got on with the task of tapping on each title and triggering the download individually.

This didn’t take long, but turned out to be a surprisingly rewarding and reflective experience.

The reason for this is that physical books still beat e-books in one important way. In most ways, I prefer e-books: they are easy to buy and easy to search, they sync across all my devices, and they allow me to carry an entire library in my pocket.

But physical books and physical bookshops are better for browsing. No matter how good a web site or app is, and no matter how sophisticated the recommendation algorithm is, I discover more when I browse the shelves of a bookshop (and make sure that I buy from the bookshop when I do). This may be because browsing is both inherently serendipitous (no algorithm can predict the happy accidents I will discover) and a pleasurable experience in its own right. I don’t want my bookshop browsing to be optimised out of existence.

This experience translates to my physical bookshelves at home. Those bookshelves are a record of my reading history; a trace of all the intellectual (and not so intellectual) paths I have taken over the years.

Under normal circumstances, my e-reader is very different. If I want a book from my library, I search for it. My app keeps a little group of recently purchased or recently accessed books at the top of the list. This is fast and convenient, but it doesn't match my physical browsing experience.

Until I was forced to go through my e-book library and download every title one by one. This process was like taking a walk through all of my virtual bookshelves. I was reminded of my studies, excursions and enthusiasms over the last few years: the time I was interested in Japanese history (just enough to enhance a holiday); or my attempts to learn data science (I didn’t have enough maths); or my desire to understand China better through the medium of science fiction (I can recommend the Three Body Problem books by Liu Cixin). I was also reminded of the books which I had downloaded with good intentions, but never got around to reading, and the books which I had read and enjoyed, and which are ready for re-reading.

The lesson I learnt was that sometimes speed is a feature and not a goal. If I was in a hurry, the option to download everything fast would have been helpful. But because I was not in a hurry, this was a welcome opportunity to think, reflect and a revisit. There may be an option on my e-reader to download all my books in one go, but I’m glad that I didn’t find it.

We should remember that experience design is experience design, and we don’t actually want all experiences to be as fast as possible: sometimes we want the time to enjoy, reflect and think.