Faster is usually better, but sometimes more users will convert when they see your product working hard. If people assume a lot of processing power goes into an important feature of your product, consider lengthening the feature's execution time and displaying a progress bar.
Amit Mehta of Boost Software fixed all the bugs that were slowing his product down, but his conversions didn't budge. Then it dawned on him — now that his product's "scan" took mere seconds (down from a couple of minutes), his users weren't convinced it was doing as much as it had before. He noticed his competitors' scans were on the slow side too. To make his product seem like it was working harder, he slowed it down. And to his amazement, his conversions nearly doubled.
Amit's in good company — other sites employing this counterintuitive tactic include the likes of Priceline and Expedia.
How can you know which features to deliberately lengthen? It ultimately comes down to user expectations, which you can gauge by taking a look at how the same feature is implemented in other applications.
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The tricky thing about value is that it isn't located in a product, but rather in a customer's perception of that product. A counterfeit Chanel handbag that is nonetheless materially identical to the real thing will seem worthless in the eyes of prospective buyers the moment it is revealed as counterfeit.
Another example from Ben Thompson:
So which of Unilever's customer segments is "right"? The men who buy Axe for the perceived sex appeal? Or the women who buy Dove for the perceived body positivity?
They're both right (from a marketing standpoint)!
This comment was deleted a year ago.