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Poor Image Optimization Can Negatively Affect User Experience

Pete Goldin
Editor and Publisher
APMdigest

Poor image optimization on web pages has a clear measurable impact on the user experience, according to a new report entitled Progressive Image Rendering: Good or Evil? published by Radware.

Radware commissioned NeuroStrata, a leader in neuroscientific research, to test three different image renderings. Using facial analysis software, moment-by-moment emotional responses in universal facial expressions of over 250 participants were captured as they were presented with three randomly selected image formats on a web page and were asked to complete tasks that relied on either textual or visual cues. Test subjects were also surveyed about their attitudes and expectations with regard to online images.

Key findings include:

■ Default image formats, used by up to 95% of all websites, do not deliver the highest level of user satisfaction.

■ 65% of participants have felt frustrated by images taking too long to load.

■ 51% of participants wait for most or all of a page’s images to load before they begin to interact with the page.

■ 50% of participants feel that the way in which images load has an effect on their web browsing experience.

Typical web pages generally use two of the three image formats used in the study – a standard lossless GIF file and progressive JPEG. The third image file used was a newly developed file, using a proprietary rendering format not yet available to the public. In the report, this new rendering technique was clearly favored by those who were tested compared to the two typical formats.

“Humans are extremely visual. Imagery grabs our attention, evokes a response and sustains our emotional engagement,” says Tammy Everts, performance evangelist for Radware. “As images comprise over 50% of the weight for a typical web page, this neuroscientific study shows that serving images faster on your website does have a direct and measurable impact on the user experience.”

“As we live in a visual age, the speed with which images load on a website tends to be an important issue,” says Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson, chairman of Mindlab International. “Research suggests that a consumer may experience mental fatigue when presented with a relentless flow of complex information on a website. When images are presented in a two-stage process – a method found in Progressive JPEGs – the brain has to work slightly harder to make sense of what is being displayed and in turn, increases frustration levels of the viewer.”

Pete Goldin is Editor and Publisher of APMdigest

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Poor Image Optimization Can Negatively Affect User Experience

Pete Goldin
Editor and Publisher
APMdigest

Poor image optimization on web pages has a clear measurable impact on the user experience, according to a new report entitled Progressive Image Rendering: Good or Evil? published by Radware.

Radware commissioned NeuroStrata, a leader in neuroscientific research, to test three different image renderings. Using facial analysis software, moment-by-moment emotional responses in universal facial expressions of over 250 participants were captured as they were presented with three randomly selected image formats on a web page and were asked to complete tasks that relied on either textual or visual cues. Test subjects were also surveyed about their attitudes and expectations with regard to online images.

Key findings include:

■ Default image formats, used by up to 95% of all websites, do not deliver the highest level of user satisfaction.

■ 65% of participants have felt frustrated by images taking too long to load.

■ 51% of participants wait for most or all of a page’s images to load before they begin to interact with the page.

■ 50% of participants feel that the way in which images load has an effect on their web browsing experience.

Typical web pages generally use two of the three image formats used in the study – a standard lossless GIF file and progressive JPEG. The third image file used was a newly developed file, using a proprietary rendering format not yet available to the public. In the report, this new rendering technique was clearly favored by those who were tested compared to the two typical formats.

“Humans are extremely visual. Imagery grabs our attention, evokes a response and sustains our emotional engagement,” says Tammy Everts, performance evangelist for Radware. “As images comprise over 50% of the weight for a typical web page, this neuroscientific study shows that serving images faster on your website does have a direct and measurable impact on the user experience.”

“As we live in a visual age, the speed with which images load on a website tends to be an important issue,” says Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson, chairman of Mindlab International. “Research suggests that a consumer may experience mental fatigue when presented with a relentless flow of complex information on a website. When images are presented in a two-stage process – a method found in Progressive JPEGs – the brain has to work slightly harder to make sense of what is being displayed and in turn, increases frustration levels of the viewer.”

Pete Goldin is Editor and Publisher of APMdigest

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According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

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