Counting the pause before the first tap

We mark pauses over four seconds. The number is not magic; it is long enough that a person is no longer simply reading. In George Town sittings the longest pauses sit on location, camera, and contacts. Notification prompts pause less, unless they arrive before the person has seen a single useful screen.

A pause is not always fear. Sometimes the person is searching the room for a second opinion. Shared phones are common in the households we recruit. A camera prompt on a family phone is a household question, not an individual preference. If your copy speaks only to “you,” the pause may be someone waiting for a sister to come back from the kitchen.

When we write the briefing we name the pause with the screen, not with a mood. “Eight seconds on the location sheet after the words precise location” is something an engineer can find. “Users felt anxious” is not.