Publications
JOURNAL (INTERNATIONAL) Comparative Judgments of Waiting Time across Smartphone Countdown Formats
Takanori Komatsu (Meiji University), Shota Yamanaka
International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction (IJHCI)
November 11, 2026
Numerical countdown formats may influence comparative judgments of waiting time. We compared six integer-only and decimal countdown formats on participants’ own smartphones. Experiment 1 measured paired judgments of countdown duration, whereas Experiment 2 measured paired judgments of site loading speed in a web-application-like task. One-decimal-place displays tended to receive longer or slower judgments than several alternatives. In the 10-second condition, formats with two to five decimal places received shorter or faster judgments than integer-only and one-decimal-place formats in both experiments, although differences within the two-to-five-decimal group varied between experiments. These results describe relative judgments among the tested formats, not an absolute reduction in perceived waiting time. Because decimal precision and updating behavior were not manipulated independently, the findings concern the formats as implemented rather than digit count alone. They provide conditional guidance for comparing countdown formats in interface design.
Paper :
Comparative Judgments of Waiting Time across Smartphone Countdown Formats
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