One click is worth 25 words and at least three seconds of that time to read the sentence completely before moving on and dropping what you’ve done. My magazine takes about 12 to 14 seconds to load the cover opening the entire magazine. That being the case, I need it to take at least four clicks to reach my magazine for people to pause and let the pages load. Each page has something to click on, meaning that a person can decide to stay on the page long enough for three seconds, as the full magazine is already brought up, to make an analysis on whether to click the item on the page or move to the next page.
Often there is more than one option on a page to click on in Milla de Oro Magazine. This should give enough time, say six seconds, to study the page, have it load correctly and maybe let the words grab the readers attention. Having got to the magazine from a total of four clicks, sometimes directly to the opening page of the article from social media, it is easy to let go of the magazine in one or two seconds. As reading 25 words takes three seconds and clicking on things on the Internet may seem instantaneous, but it’s not. If you look at Google search results, the time it takes for the query to load has remained constant if not taking longer in the days that are upon us.
The reason it takes a query to load longer on Google and why Facebook needs its page refreshed all the time is because the amount of data that is being digested to put the thumbnail of information in front of you in a way you agree with is time consuming. You may very well have come to terms with the speed of technology the way it appears to you. How about you try to use a 1GB memory phone to load some of the current media available on the Internet. The system just won’t allow for the older technology.
Milla de Oro Magazine loads very slowly on a 1 or 2GB memory phone. It can take up to 25 seconds. That is enough information for a person to read this article up till now. Having already let the page load on my magazine and then to scroll to the point at which this text appears, can often seem to take much longer than the 25 seconds.
I can read my entire magazine and edit it for the last time in under an hour. The magazine is nearly 80-85 pages long. Meaning I spend less than a minute on each page and I have designed each page to have roughly 420 words on them. That means with the 16 seconds to read what is on the page and the three seconds to load the page you still have about six seconds to look at each picture. In one page that would be two actions or hits and one button movement. So, half the time you spend on a page is acting.
I have designed the magazine so even if you spend half the time taking actions, the remaining half that is equivalent to the actions taken can be taken to read or look at pictures. I call that a well-balanced magazine that generates many results for the reader and designer. It is comparable to the gold standard in that of a fifty/fifty trade and the more you take part the more value you will get out of reading the magazine.
I would like people to get to my magazine in fewer clicks but feel that the time necessary to get them to the magazine should prepare them to be patient enough to take actions to read what is in front of them. If they simply need to shovel through the magazine as quickly as possible this magazine is not for them and a reader like this should return to the feed.