Universal Usability Guidelines for Users with Slow Connections
http://www.otal.umd.edu/UUPractice/slow_speed/

Ayan, Necip Fazil
Universal Usability
2001

Abstract:

Since the beginning of 'age of the Internet', the load time of Web pages has been the major concern among the designers and the users. Analysis of traffic patterns of the web sites has shown how the users get frustrated about slowness of the connection. WWW, which stands for 'World Wide Web', has been pronounced as 'World Wide Wait' by many users. Web designers often want to use graphics, animation, and even sound and video to represent or enhance web site content. However, these can generate longer waiting times unless the users have a high speed connection and research shows that web users don't like to wait. Tenth Georgia Tech GVU WWW Survey (1998) showed that slow ads, speed of the Internet and graphics are among the problems that the users complained most.