This project began with a simple question: How do network delays impact user perceptions of distributed documents? The simplest scenario is to think about someone retrieving a document from the World-Wide Web (WWW). How do users feel about the experience, the information, and the organization that provided the information? How do network delays alter the answers to these questions?
System response time studies are numerous, but none have explored the unique combination of issues that come with documents that are distributed across wide-area networks. Delays are longer, less predictable, and are typically beyond the control of any single individual or organization. If your word processor is slow and you want better performance, you can upgrade your computer. If retrieving a distributed document takes too long, it's unlikely there is much you, as the consumer, can do about it. If you are working at home, you can upgrade your computer and buy a faster modem, but your connection to the internet will always be slow compared to a T1 line. In addition, while computer hardware may get faster, network delays do not seem to be improving. As a result, these issues will continue to be important for a long time.
As this project progressed, it split into several parts: