Jakob Nielsen on -Velocity of Media Consumption: TV vs. the Web-

Jakob Nielsen’s column for November 24th 2009 is called “Velocity of Media Consumption: TV vs. the Web” and it is about the difference between the Web and TV from his Usability driven point of view.

The granularity of user decisions is much finer on the Web, which is dominated by the instant gratification of the user’s needs in any given instant. Content must cater to this rapid pace.

Video on the Web is an intermediate case between broadcast video (TV) and page-based Web navigation. Preliminary data indicates that most Web videos should be short — typically 2–10 minutes — indicating a usage velocity between Web and TV, but closer to the Web’s velocity of one user decision every 10–120 seconds.

When you develop content, services, and designs for the Web, remember that this medium has a much faster velocity than older media, whether print or TV.

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