The 60-Second Rule

60 seconds. That is the budget. Land on the page, do the thing, get the result. If you are still reading instructions at the 61-second mark, we failed.

This is not a metric we track. It is a design constraint we apply before anything ships.

WHY 60 SECONDS

Because that is roughly how long a person will tolerate uncertainty before they leave. Not boredom — uncertainty. "Am I doing this right?" is the thought that kills tools. If it takes a minute to answer that question, most people are already gone.

HOW IT CHANGES DESIGN

The 60-second rule kills onboarding flows. Kills tooltips. Kills tutorial modals. If the tool needs that much explanation, the tool is too complicated.

It forces the interface down to one visible action. One input. One button. One result. Everything else is noise.

THE EXCEPTION THAT PROVES THE RULE

Some tools are genuinely complex. They need configuration. They have options. Fine — but the default path still has to work in 60 seconds. Power users find the settings. Everyone else just uses the tool.

Complexity is allowed. Required effort is not.