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Doherty threshold 0:32
A 32-second explainer of Doherty threshold, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Doherty threshold demo
What this video covers
A historical HCI guideline suggesting subsecond system response helps maintain productive, engaged interaction. Treat roughly 400 ms as a design heuristic to aim under, not a universal perceptual threshold.
You waved the quick responses straight through, then started calling them laggy long before a full second had passed. That line, near 400 milliseconds, is the Doherty threshold: under it an interface feels like an extension of your thought; over it, you notice the wait and begin to doubt.
