Limelight Networks Releases Findings from State of the User Experience Report

What age group is spending the most time online outside of the office each week? If you said Millennials—think a little older … a few decades older.

According to the “2015 State of the User Experience” report released by Limelight Networks, time spent online in the past year has dramatically increased—with 45 percent of respondents spending more than 15 hours a week on their laptop, tablet or phone.

Who is the group making up the majority of these power users? Surprisingly, and possibly counter to popular thought, it’s Baby Boomers—individuals aged 51-69. More than half (51 percent) are online 15 hours/week, as opposed to Millennials—individuals aged 18-33—at just 41 percent.

The Mobile Web, Video and the Importance of a Personal Experience
As the always-connected world continues to expand, so do expectations for the mobile Web—which now has surpassed desktop Web usage according to ComScore. Last year, users were asked if they would be willing to wait longer for a website to load on a mobile device, versus a laptop or desktop, and 44 percent said they would. This year, the results are startlingly different—only 35 percent said they would be willing to wait longer on a mobile device, and nearly 40 percent expect equally fast-loading sites, regardless of if the page is accessed from a mobile device or a laptop/desktop. Clearly, as adoption rates increase, so do expectations for the mobile web.

Other key findings revealed in the report include:

• Content, not e-commerce, rules the day: Respondents listed “social media sites,” “reading news content” and “watching video content” as their top three online activities, respectively, while “reading news content” was the most popular in 2014. E-commerce finished in 5^th place, behind researching products online. There is no question — users are consuming content more than shopping online.
• Video is key for Millennials: While social media remains the most popular online activity, Millennials are spending nearly as much time watching online video—which is likely to increase as additional video and streaming options such as live sporting events are made more available.
• Performance is still key to a great web experience, but surprisingly, patience is an unexpected virtue: Last year, the majority (52 percent) of participants listed a high-performing website as their most critical expectation, with just 41 percent willing to wait more than five seconds for a website to load. While performance was still critical in 2015, patience is on the rise for Internet consumption—this year, 52 percent would wait more than five seconds. Moreover, this year, 33 percent said they would leave a website to buy a product from a competitor if the site loaded too slowly, down from 37 percent last year.  Additionally, in 2015, 72 percent would be willing to give the slow-loading site a try in the future, up from 69 percent last year.
• Users want a personalized experience: Last year, the report stated that the “value of web experience personalization remains to be seen”—as 37 percent indicated they did not want a website to remember them from a previous visit. This year, the results are dramatically different as just 25 percent don’t want a highly-personalized experience.

“Ultimately, consumers want more from their online experience, particularly as the mobile web and video continue their march toward ubiquity,” said Jason Thibeault, senior director of marketing strategy at Limelight. “We have more options than ever—more content, more video, and more shopping. And while patience has increased slightly, people—whether they are Millennials, Gen X or Baby Boomers—all expect a personalized, highly-functioning web experience. If not they will look elsewhere. With the explosion in content, branded entertainment, video and e-commerce, the stakes are higher than ever.”

The “State of the User Experience 2015” report is based on a survey that collected data from 1,302 consumers chosen at random located in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore, aged 18-69, who spend more than five hours per week online outside of work.