Author: Julia R.🐨

#slowness #slowliving #slowinteraction #digitalcalm #calmtechnology

Modern interfaces seem fast not only because they are optimized, but also because they were designed that way from the outset — visually, cognitively, and, most importantly, emotionally.

“Did you ever notice that some apps seemed faster even though your internet connection remains the same?” — Ayman Abdallah, 2025 [1]

The author explains that the perception of speed depends not only on metrics but also on design decisions such as smooth animations, instant feedback, and placeholders during loading—all of which create that “feeling of speed” regardless of the actual loading time.

Today, fast interfaces have long become the norm. In this article, I want to examine and discuss the key patterns of “fast UX” that define our digital experience.

1️⃣ Instant Feedback — instant reaction as an illusion of control

Instant Feedback is a so-called seamless reaction: you like something, and the heart immediately turns red; you swipe right, and the screen changes instantly without any smooth animation. This pattern reinforces the feeling that the app is always “ready” and sometimes even faster than you are.

Examples:

⭐Instagram: likes, saves, animations — instant, even if the request has not yet reached the server. “Visual simulation of action.”
⭐TikTok: swipe to the next video with zero delay, even if the video is loading in the background.
⭐YouTube Shorts: reactions and swipes are also instantaneous. The feeling of an endless stream.

❔ How does this speed things up? Instant Feedback suppresses the moment of pause, thought, and reflection. Even the slightest delay could allow you to realize what is happening.

2️⃣ Endless scroll — no beginning and no end

One of the most fashionable inventions of digital content consumption culture.

Examples:

⭐TikTok: swipe to the next video with zero delay — even if it is loading in the background. The platform has also recently introduced the ability to automatically scroll through the feed.

«Are we truly ready for it to be the white noise in the background of our daily lives?» — Jordan Hart [2]

This is a great example of how one seemingly insignificant feature can fundamentally change the core concept of the TikTok platform.

“Autoscroll makes TikTok — an app that people use to dissociate, and which already has to remind its users to take a break because they’ve been scrolling for hours  — into an even more passive experience. And I’d argue you get the most out of TikTok when you engage with it, going down that rabbit hole on a new topic that caught your interest or reading the back-and-forth in the comments section about a hot-button issue.” [3]

Endless scroll provides an infinite amount of content without a stop signal, without a bottom line, and even without a pause. The only pause is when you go to the comments and try to socialize a little. This is a difficult task with an unknown outcome, which, from a psychological point of view, forces the user to continue in an attempt to find the end, which does not exist.

⭐We are also all familiar with Instagram Reels, Threads, Pinterest, and X feeds.

“As a result, the feed is a ubiquitous interface — an infinite stream of content, a list that goes on forever.” — Alexis Lloyd [4]

3️⃣ Notification Loops — as a trigger for acceleration

Notifications are a kind of rhythm in which we live. They form an accelerated cycle of checking:

Notification —> Waiting —> Reaction —> Click —> Attention

Examples:

⭐Instagram: notifications that “someone has started a live stream,” “you’ve been tagged,” “new post”
⭐Facebook: notifications for every random action
⭐TikTok: push notifications about “trending videos you might like”
⭐Snapchat: the same streaks

❔ Why does this speed things up? Notifications create a certain time frame that dictates when we need to act, without giving us a chance to think. We don’t choose the moment — it chooses for us.

4️⃣ Micro-Acceleration Patterns

Modern applications use micro-movements that create the illusion of speed, even if the actual work of the system takes longer. This is one of the key mechanisms of “fast UX.”

Examples:

⭐LinkedIn, Airbnb, Uber, Notion: use of Skeleton Leaders — so-called low-fidelity gray blocks that mimic the structure of future content. This way, the brain is already loaded and sees movement, it seems that everything is about to happen, but the loading is still in progress. This keeps the user engaged.
⭐Spotify, Google, Gmail: use the technique of movement towards the result. Interfaces use animation before the data is ready. Animation of the transition to the player, a pop-up map, opening a letter.
⭐Instagram, YouTube, Duolingo: auto-advance behavior. Content plays and switches automatically — without the user’s decision. The video switches to the next one based on a recommendation, the same endless feed, or a transition to the next task without indicating it.

🔚 Conclusion

Finally, I would like to mention that all these patterns are effective, but not from the point of view of human experience.

For humans, this creates:

📌a feeling of rush;
📌an inability to stop;
📌short, superficial attention;
📌an accumulation of cognitive noise;
📌digital fatigue;
📌destroy the sense of time by accelerating the internal rhythm.

Fast UX is more than just speed.
It is the aesthetics of acceleration built into every movement: swipe, like, notification, update.
These patterns shape the pace of our lives.

I can also recommend a relevant video on this topic by a blogger who highlights the problems of digital noise and, based on her own experience, talks about how to clear it up and turn it to your advantage:

Sources 🛈

[1] Ayman Abdallah. Why some apps feel faster than others. Medium, 2025. Available at: https://medium.com/@aymanabdallah/why-some-apps-feel-faster-than-others-926a30839fab

[2],[3] Jordan Hart. TikTok’s new auto-scroll feature sparks debate. Business Insider, 2024. Available at:
https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-autoscroll-feature-comments-section-2024-1

[4] Alexis Lloyd. Future #62: Invention & Reinvention. Ethical Futures Lab / Medium, 2023. Available at:
https://medium.com/ethical-futures-lab/future-62-invention-reinvention-4c657950f89d

[5] Anastacia Kay. Как выйти из цифрового тумана (How to Get Out of Digital Fog). YouTube, 2024. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_vi1-y-bbQ

#slowness #slowliving #slowinteraction #digitalcalm #calmtechnology

In today’s world, the concept of “slowness” usually has a negative connotation and is considered a negative trait.

Slow internet is annoying
Slow loading means an error
A slow user is inefficient

And it seems to me that recently, interest in the concepts of “slowness” and “mindfulness” has been growing. Many celebrities are leaving social media, or never joined in the first place, and we are returning to slow content — long videos lasting 30+ minutes, watching interviews lasting several hours, and preferring slow conversational content.

Researchers, designers, urbanists, psychologists, and app developers are all talking about the concept of “slowness”

Slowness as a cultural concept 🏛️

In fact, the concept of “slowness” began long before digitalization. Philosopher Hartmut Rosa expresses this idea in his book Social Acceleration:

“We live in a world where acceleration has become the norm, and anything that cannot be accelerated is perceived as an obstacle.” [1]

This is where the need for a certain slowdown arises — not as a rejection of progress and marginality, but as a return to attention, depth, and presence.

In pop culture “slow living” — the idea of conscious slowing down — has gained enormous popularity when it comes to everyday household chores. Popular bloggers are increasingly promoting this topic, with people like Matt D’Avella and Tam Kaur making videos about digital overload, their own rituals of mindfulness, and how to cope with the pace of modern life.

[2] Matt D’Avella. “How to slow down your life.” YouTube, 2019.

“In 2023, the study shows that close to every other person say they spend too much time on electronic devices. And as many as one third of consumers state that they suffer from digital overload.” — The global Trend Tracker Report 2023 (Toluna & Two Sides) [3]

That is:
📌 almost every second person believes that they spend too much time in front of screens;
📌 a third of respondents directly mention a state of digital overload.

Slowness and digital experience 🤳

When talking about the concept of “slowness” in the field of interfaces, it should no longer mean “anti-productivity” After all, slow design in a digital environment is:

📌unhurried design;
📌an interface that respects attention;
📌a system that does not consume resources;
📌a conscious way of interacting.

In 2001, Lars Hallnäs and Johan Redström proposed the concept of Slow Technology. They wrote that technology can be: “…not instruments of acceleration, but mechanisms of reflection.”[4]

A little later, Mark Weiser and John Brown introduced the concept of “calm technology” — technology “that informs but doesn’t demand our focus or attention.”[5] In this concept, information moves around our focus and awareness, not in the middle. Information is there when we need it and disappears unnoticed when we don’t need it.

This philosophy is now actively used in HCI (Human–Computer Interaction) and manifests itself as:

📌The use of smooth transitions
📌Breathing apps with slow animation
📌Minimalist phones without visual noise

Even when talking about TikTok — a platform originally conceived as high-speed, several-second content — the duration of videos has been increased to several minutes — up to 10.[6]

“You can create videos of different lengths:
Videos you record in TikTok can be up to 10 minutes long.
Videos you upload in TikTok can be up to 60 minutes long.”

Why is it important for designers to study slowness? 🤔

For designers, “slowness” is not about slowing down, but about the quality of the experience we create.

Slow design allows the user to:

📌Relieve overload and anxiety
📌Increase attention to content
📌Be aware of their own pace
📌Support the user rather than exhaust them

Trends such as temporal design — the design of time, rhythm, and pauses—are already emerging in the field of interactive design.

[7] Image source: Cranford Teague, “What is Temporal Design Thinking?” Medium, 2020.

“Temporal design thinking broadens the scope beyond interaction points and linear journeys into a wider world of how the goal for the product might fit into the actors’ wider goals and needs over time.”[8]

Sources 🛈

[1] Hartmut Rosa. Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity. Columbia University Press, 2013.

[2] Matt D’Avella. “How to slow down your life.” YouTube, 2019. Available at: https://youtu.be/bmr1-K4dfvg?si=SeERSkPiQAbXTpva

[3] Two Sides & Toluna. Trend Tracker Report 2023. Two Sides Global, 2023. Available at:
https://www.holmen.com/ko/paper/insights/paper-inspiration/digital-fatigue/

[4] Lars Hallnäs and Johan Redström. “Slow Technology – Designing for Reflection.” Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 201–212, 2001.

[5] Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown. “The Coming Age of Calm Technology.” Xerox PARC, 1996. Available at:
https://calmtech.com/papers/coming-age-calm-technology.pdf

[6] TikTok Support. “Camera Tools: Creating Videos.” TikTok Help Center, 2024. Available at:
https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/creating-videos/camera-tools

[7] Image source: Cranford Teague, “What is Temporal Design Thinking?” Medium, 2020. Available at:
https://cranfordteague.medium.com/what-is-temporal-design-thinking-dd0845e7fc3c

[8] Cranford Teague. “What is Temporal Design Thinking?” Medium, 2020. Available at:
https://cranfordteague.medium.com/what-is-temporal-design-thinking-dd0845e7fc3c

#slowness #slowliving #slowinteraction #digitalcalm #calmtechnology

A world that moves too fast 🌍

According to statistics, every day about 70-80 percent of people start their day with their phone [1], thus beginning the day with movement—scrolling, constantly moving from one app to another, wanting to see everything at once. Technologies that were once created for our own efficiency, with the aim of helping us simplify our lives, now complicate it and kill our rhythm. We look, we refresh, we respond. We move quickly not because we want to, but because technology forces us to.

And I have long been interested in the question: What if design, especially interactive design, became slower rather than rushing us? What if interfaces helped us to be not only efficient but also more observant?

Slowness as a design attitude 🦥

“Slowness” does not mean inefficiency at all. It means being aware of the passage of time, rather than ignoring it or trying to escape it.

” …slow living is not about living your life in slow motion; it’s about doing everything at the right speed and pacing instead of rushing. By that same logic, slow living is not about losing time by going slowly; it’s about gaining time by doing the things that are most important to you.” — Kayleigh Draynn, “The Philosophy of Slow Living,” Stylist Magazine, 2021. [2]

In the world of design, this is referred to as experience optimization. Instead of removing friction, we can design movements that allow the user to reflect: a pause before sending, a fading effect when moving screens, sounds that immerse the user in the environment.

Designing for slowness asks a simple but radical question:

How do our technologies shape our sense of time — and how might we reclaim it?

Early Ideas of Slow and Calm Technology 🗃️

Possible solutions and reflections on this topic have already been described, and systems have even been devised. These are systems that encourage reflection rather than prompting immediate action. More than a quarter of a century ago, Lars Hallnäs and Johan Redström came up with the concept of “Slow Technology” [3]— their idea was revealed in the dominance of logic and speed in human-computer interaction. They created a technology that emphasizes time, arouses interest, and encourages patience.

Later, Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown introduced the concept of “Calm Technology”[4], which allows us to be informed without being overwhelmed or distracted. They promoted the idea that new technologies should be in the shadows and in the background, becoming part of our environment rather than distracting us from our focus.

Beyond Screens: Towards Movement and Presence 🌳

Yes, for me, this question expands even further.

What if slowness can exist not only within the interface but also when we are moving? In the context of walking, cycling, or simply being in one place right now?

As an interface designer, I have to work with interfaces that connect and take into account both digital and physical experiences: maps, navigation systems, sensors that translate movement into data. I want to focus not on speed and efficiency, but on quality.

What if I want to engage a person and choose something beautiful, calm, or rhythmic rather than fast? My motivation is to explore and observe how interactive design can be transformed into a conscious experience—where movement itself becomes the center for awareness and connection, rather than just transportation.

[5] Image source: Slow Ways, a UK-based initiative encouraging slower, more mindful mobility.

Emotional and Sensory Dimensions of Slowness 👀

Slowness is not just about time—it’s also about how we feel.

When movement slows down, we begin to feel better — audio becomes louder and clearer, textures become more visible, and space becomes more tangible. Designing for slowness also means involving the body in the process as well as the mind — allowing users to notice, listen, and feel more than just take action.

In urban spaces, this means reconnecting people with their surroundings. Something that will make people respond to the present, a navigation app that not only guides them through the streets but also engages their other senses: more sunlight, tranquility, greenery. Through this approach, design becomes a bridge between digital awareness and materialized emotions, turning ordinary movement into a reflective action.

Challenges of Designing for Slowness in a Fast World 😓

Paradoxically, designing for slowness may seem like an act of resistance or some kind of downgrade. After all, we live in a world where success is measured by productivity and the almost immediate demonstration of success when it occurs. I believe that interfaces that pause, delay, or call for awareness challenge not only design norms but also society’s expectations.

The biggest challenge is the balance between calmness and usability. It turns out that a system that is too slow risks scaring users away altogether, while one that is too fast will not fit this philosophy. Another challenge will be assessing how well the design fits the concept of “slowness.” Can we even measure or test success in this case? How can we measure awareness?

Despite all these questions, I see value in this work, which is why I also want to talk about physical space, because I have a feeling that people in it are slower and more aware. Maybe I can get inspired by the physical world and integrate it into the digital one? Designing for “slowness” is about ethical design — recognizing human limitations and restoring a more humane rhythm to everyday life.

Next Steps in My Research 🔍

1.Delving deeper into the concept of “slowness”

I want to learn more about what this really means, especially in terms of interactive design—not only as a lack of speed, but also as a quality of awareness, rhythm, and presence. I want to study this in both theory and practice and how it can help create more conscious design.

2.Comparing urban contexts

In the next part—and possibly in a separate section dedicated to this topic—I want to compare different cities and reflect on their infrastructure and daily rhythms, from the walkable city of Graz to megacities like Vienna and the unorganized chaos of Tokyo. Such comparisons will help me understand how urban design is closely linked to interactive design and how I can contribute to this.

3.Analysis of existing tools and platforms

My research will also include a critical analysis and review of various applications, particularly transportation, map, and taxi apps. The goal is to understand how current systems prioritize speed and efficiency and how they could emphasize the quality of movement, emotional comfort, and sensory experience.

4.Methods and design experiments

Through observation, experiential mapping, and comparative analysis, I want to understand how people interact with navigation apps and urban space.

5.Conceptual framework

Ultimately, I want to define the term “slowness” as a design principle that unites digital interaction, bodily experience, and urban consciousness. The goal is not to resist technology, but to rethink our relationship with it and create a more human rhythm.

Sources 🛈

[1] Deloitte. Irish Mobile Consumer Survey 2024: Smartphone Usage and Consumer Trends. Deloitte Ireland, 2024. Available at: https://www.deloitte.com/ie/en/about/press-room/consumer-trends-smartphone-usage.html

[2] Draynn, K. (2021). The Philosophy of Slow Living. Stylist Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.stylist.co.uk/long-reads/slow-living-lifestyle-stress-nature-three-day-reset-foel-gopyn-conwy-north-wales-national-trust-holiday-remote-countryside-cottage-mindfulness/257646

[3] Hallnäs, L., & Redström, J. (2001). Slow Technology – Designing for Reflection. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 5(3), 201–212. https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00000019

[4] Weiser, M., & Brown, J. S. (1996). Designing Calm Technology. Xerox PARC. Retrieved from https://calmtech.com/papers/designing-calm-technology-by-mark-weiser-and-john-seely-brown

[5] Image source: Slow Ways, a UK-based initiative encouraging slower, more mindful mobility.