Case Study: Ericsson improves understanding of mobile delay impact with Neurons

Mobile delays are as stressful as watching a horror movie!

The telecommunications company Ericsson partnered with the neuroscience firm Neurons to understand the negative impact of mobile and streaming delays on user experience. Their challenge was to move beyond self-reported survey data and uncover the subconscious, emotional, and cognitive responses of users when faced with loading delays, buffering, and lag.

Using a combination of EEG brain monitoring, eye-tracking, and heart rate measurement, Neurons conducted a series of studies for Ericsson. The results revealed that delays as short as 2-3 seconds triggered a stress response in users equivalent to watching a horror movie, including a 44% increase in heart rate. The research also found these delays caused a net decrease in brand affection for the provider while increasing positive feelings for competitors, with significant cultural variations in tolerance. For a 5G VR gaming study, Neurons found that delays caused a 100%+ increase in stress and user nausea, providing Ericsson with crucial data on the physiological impact of network performance.

Ericsson