Immediate costs and rewards loom larger than future ones.
More quotesA fast result can look suspiciously cheap. Make the same result visibly take eight seconds of work and people may value it more.
Second one: searching.
Second three: checking another source.
Second six: comparing the options.
Second eight: here is your answer.
The waiting time has become evidence of effort performed on the customer’s behalf. Kayak’s updates make an invisible search legible; progress reassures people that delay means activity instead of neglect. This is especially useful when work prevents errors and leaves no object behind. A fraud check that finds nothing has still done something.
Now the filthy temptation: animate work that already finished. Add a spinner, invent stages and keep the customer waiting because research says waiting can increase value. The labour illusion becomes actual deception.
The line depends on whether the displayed process corresponds to genuine work. If several checks really take time, name them. If the answer is instant, return the saved seconds and explain the machinery elsewhere. Nobody asked software to cosplay as a slow craftsman.
Customers rarely enjoy delay itself. They enjoy understanding what delay is buying. That difference separates useful transparency from eight seconds of dots spinning around a lie. People asked for confidence, not a software pantomime.
Log the real stages and their elapsed time. Display only the ones that actually run. If the result comes back instantly, show it instantly. The customer can cope with competence.