Time swipes when you’re having fun: reducing perceived waiting time while making it more enjoyable

Waiting for a system to respond always will be a factor in human–computer interaction. This is deployed by spinners, progress bars, skeleton-screens and other means. This project studies experiencing longer waits along the lines of ‘no activity’ (progress bar), ‘passive waiting’ (reading) and ‘active waiting’ (doing something). For the latter, a novel method is introduced: users actively swipe an image after which it disappears and the content underneath will unveil, as if it were a scratch card. A between-subjects experiment (n = 410) was conducted using a mobile website in 3 conditions to gauge the effects on estimated waiting time and enjoyment. The ‘no activity’ and ‘active waiting’ conditions were estimated faster than the ‘passive waiting’ condition. The ‘passive’ and ‘active’ waiting conditions were significantly more enjoyable than the ‘no activity’ condition. When combining waiting time estimation (shorter is preferable) and enjoyment (higher is preferable) the ‘active waiting’ condition yielded better results.