TL;DR
There are four speed clutter free speed tests. If we give speed tests a clutter-free score, then Fast is clearly first. Internet Speed at a Glance is second and Google Fiber and M-Lab are jointly in third place.
It is striking that the Ookla Speedtest has an extremely low clutter-free score.
Contents
- Introduction
- Method of measurement
- Speed tests to test
- The measurements
- Conclusions
- Screen shots of the homepages
Introduction
Cognitive load is one of the most difficult aspects of accessibility to determine.
Instead - subjectively (because there is no other way) - it is examined to what extent there is clutter that distracts from what matters, namely measuring the download speed.
Method of measurement
For this test, we'll visit the speed test home page and describe the clutter we encounter until we measure the download speed.
Note that we only describe what we see in the light mode.
White space is not considered clutter. The more white space the better.
Most animated images are considered clutter. An exception is a progress or busy indicator, these are not considered as clutter.
Any unnecessary obstacle to start the speed test is clutter. Even a question regarding cookies is considered as clutter. This is because when a website uses only strictly necessary cookies there is no need to ask for permission.
In short, anything that unexpectedly attracts attention is considered clutter.
Finally, we give the speed test a clutter-free score on a scale of 0 to 10.
Speed tests to test
Since describing the clutter seems difficult, we only test the top 10 speed tests.
The measurements
- Cloudflare Clutter-free score: 3
- The Cloudflare speed test starts automatically. There is no question regarding cookies which is fine
- During the test, there are many animated images. One time one chart is updated, and then the other. This gives a messy impression. Hence almost the whole interface is considered as clutter
- While the speed test is running there is a running hare at the left top corner and besides the retest button the word Running... is flashing. There is no progress indicator, hence we consider this flashing text as clutter
- At the end of the test a lot of information
- The speed test logo, a link to the About page, the text "Your internet speed", the download speed plus information icon, a graph of th download speed, including a 90th percentile line, the upload speed plus information icon, a graph of the upload speed including a 90th percentile line, the latency plus information icon, the download latency, the upload latency, jitter plus information icon, the download jitter, the upload jitter, packet loss plus information icon, the measured at time, a (disabled) pauze button, a retest button, a share at Twitter button, a share at Facebook button, a download results button, the NetWork Quality Score plus information button and a "Learn more" link, network quality indicators for video streaming, online gaming and video chatting, server location including information button, a chart of the server location and mine estimated location, the IP protocol used, the name of the server location, the name of my ISP plus a link to the average internet quality of my ISP (Cloudflare radar), my IP address plus a link to information regarding my IP address (Cloudflare radar), download measurements plus information icon, results of the 100kB download test in a graph, results of the 1MB download test in a graph, upload measurements plus information icon, results of the 100kB upload test in a graph, results of the 1MB upload test in a graph, latency measurements plus information icon, unloaded latency results in a graph, latency during download in a graph, ...plus some items below the fold -
is shown besides the download speed. When you are only interested in the download speed, these other information is considered as clutter
- Fast Clutter-free score: 10
- The FAST logo is shown, plus the option to change language and a link to the privacy policy
- More important is that this speed test starts automatically and directly shows your internet speed
- During the speed test the measured value is grey, when the test is completed the measured value is black
- When the test is finished there is a clear repeat button
- Below the result the is a "Show more info" button, a question mark button, a share at Facebook button, a share at Twitter button and in right lower corner the text "Powered by NetFlix" (which links to netflix.com)
- Google Fiber Clutter-free score: 8
- The Google Fiber speed test has in a blue bar in the left upper corner the name Google Fiber. This is just text
- Below the blue bar there is the text "Speed test" and "Speed to: Atlanta"
- In a clear box there is the option to perform a speed test. Due to the text "Click button to begin" and the fact that there is one button, it is clear what to do
- When you press the button (for the first time?) you get the question is you really want to run this speed test. This because "Running a speed test on your mobile network may result in data charges". This is considered as clutter
- After pressing continu the speed test starts, the results are shown, and the text "Done" is shown
- Internet Speed at a Glance Clutter-free score: 9
- This speed test shows the name of the speed test, this is not considered as clutter
- The download speed range is displayed immediately, this is not considered as clutter
- There are arrows below the download speed range
- There is a clear Retest button
- Below the Retest button there is text indicating how to interpret the test results, this is considered as clutter
- M-Lab Clutter-free score: 8
- Before you are able to start the test you have to tick a checkbox to agree with M-Lab's data policy. This is considered as clutter
- When you have ticked the checkbox the BEGIN button is highlighted, this is not considered as clutter
- Below the BEGIN button there is a link to the privacy policy. That there are two links with different names referring to the same privacy policy is considered as clutter
- When the test starts there is a clear progress indicator
- The final results are shown in a neat table
- Meter.net Clutter-free score: 2
- Before you are able to start the speed test you have some privacy options and the option to accept the standard options. This is considered as clutter
- When consent is given 3 ads appears at the screen. This is considered as clutter
- There are 6 clickable items in the header, the Meter.net logo and the first menu item ("INTERNET SPEED TEST") both link to the homepage, there is enought whitespace in the header so we don't consider this as clutter
- The main content has a light blue background, there is the text "Internet speed test", a START button with a (second part with an arrow, which is an integral part of the button), the current location is mentioned, the test type (a concurrent test with multiple servers), links to the test servers used (plus per test server the option to open the serverlocation in a separate tab), a button to change the server, some background information regarding the test, a link to the separate ping test, an option to use the speed test web plugin service and some stats with average of the world results. In short, too much information. This block is therefore considered clutter
- Below this block there is some background information regarding this speed test. This is considered clutter
- When the test is started 4 ads are shown, this is clutter
- The following test results are shown: Ping (plus an quality indicator based on blue stars, download (green stars) and upload (4 stars). That the ping is shown before the download is considered as clutter
- Besides the information shown at the startpage, there is a checkbox (!) and a hidden link to see the details of the test
- Ookla Speedtest Clutter-free score: 1
- Initial there is a consent for If you consent, we and our partners can store and access personal information on your device to provide a more personalised browsing experience. This is considered as clutter
- When consent is given 4 ads appears. This is considered as clutter
- There is still a prominent text block which starts with the following text: Ookla collects certain data through Speedtest that may be considered personally identifiable, such as your IP address, unique device identifiers or location. This text block is considered as clutter
- Closing this text blocks makes clear that there is another add, hence there are 5 ads now
- The top menu contains 8 menu items, that is a lot, hence it is considered as clutter
- Above the clear animated GO button, there are links to (previously?) RESULTS and SETTINGS. These two extra options are considered as clutter
- The GO button itself is centered with enough "whitespace" (the Ookla Speed test has a dark background, so "whitespace" is not literally correct), this is not considered as clutter
- Below the GO button is stated who your ISP is and which test server is used (including an option to change the test server). There is also some information regarding the connections (multi or single) and an option to switch. This is all considered as clutter
- Below the add there Speedtest promotes other versions of their speed test. This is considered as clutter
- There is more information below the fold. Without scrolling this isn't visible, so that is fine for now
- Pressing the magic GO button gives a browser pop up which states: www.speedtest.net wants to know lour location with the options Allow and Block
- When the speed test is finished a pop-up appears with an ad from Ookla with the suggestion to Try Speedtest for Desktop. Of course this is considered as clutter
- After closing this ad, there are still three ads at the screen. Again clutter
- Above the result block, there are 4 options to SHARE the results, there is an id, and the there are (again) the RESULTS and SETTINGS links. All this stuff is considered as clutter
- The download and upload speed are clearly shown at the screen, this is not considered as clutter
- Below these speeds there is the text "Ping ms" followed with 3 icon-value combinations. There is only an explanation what these numbers are when you hover the icons/values. Is is not immediately clear what these numbers represent, hence this is considered as clutter
- In the results block is GO button for a result, and information regarding the test conditions. The first one isn't considered as clutter, the test conditions are consider as clutter
- Also in the results block is a quick Net Promoter Score (NPS) question, including the warning that when you enter a score you also (...) acknowledge and agree that Ookla may share this information as set forth in its Privacy Policy. This is considered as clutter
- Below the result block is one add and an overview of popular services with reported issues. Sorry, I'm not interested. This is clutter
- Finally there are some icons at the fold (with explaning text below the fold), which are again considered as clutter
- SpeedOf.me Clutter-free score: 5
- SpeedOf.me starts with a message that you have to accept their Privacy Policy. This because SpeedOf.me will not function without cookies and/or data collection. There is a blinking ACCEPT button that should be clicked to continu. This is clutter
- After accepting the Privacy Policy, the homepage becomes accessible. There are two ads shown, 1 at the left and 1 at the right. This is considered as clutter
- The homepage itself consists of several "pages". After some time (half a minute?) another page appears. This is considered as clutter
- Each homepage has a clear call to action. These calls to action are: START TEST (twice) and FIND OUT MORE (once). The FIND OUT MORE option is considered as clutter
- When you start the test, there appears a clear graph which indicates what happened. This is not considered as clutter
- When you have a smaller screen, the ads are blocking the results. This is considered as clutter
- The test results are clearly shown, that is fine
- There appears an extra VPN ad when the test completed, this is considered as clutter
- SpeedSmart Clutter-free score: 4
- Initial SpeedSmart.net asks for your consent to use your personal data. This is considered as clutter
- When consent is given an ad appears at the bottom of the screen. This is considered as clutter
- There seems to be 8 clickable items in the header, followed by a large white space. Although the HOME button is smaller than the START TEST button, it has the same layout. Since this button is shown first, it seems important. So we consider this clutter
- In the middle of this white space is a call to measure your internet speed, with a START TEST button below it. The call to measure your internet speed is considered clutter. This is mainly because the word internet seems to be more or less underlined with a blue line. However, it is not a clickable link and therefore confusing, so clutter
- Clear, well-arranged information is provided during the test. Admittedly, there are moving images on the screen in several places. These all seem to indicate that the speed test is in progress and is therefore not considered clutter
- The final results are only indicated with icons. It takes some thinking to figure out what these icons stand for. Although the results page looks well organized, we still consider these icons clutter
- TestMy.net Clutter-free score: 1
- Initial TestMy.net asks for your consent to use your personal data. This is considered as clutter
- When consent is given four ads appears. This is considered as clutter
- In the header there seems to be 4 options and 7 menu items. This is considered as clutter
- Below the header there are 5 keywords to give trust in this speed test. This isn't considered as clutter
- Below these keywords, there is a TEST MY INTERNET button with two options. These options are considered as clutter
- The main content is presentend in four tabs. This isn't considered as clutter
- The first (visible) tab contains 3 options to test. These options are: TEST MY DOWMLOAD SPEED, TEST MY UPLOAD SPEED and AUTOMATIC SPEED TEST. These choices are considered as clutter
- When clicking the first button (TEST MY INTERNET), this button is replaced by 4 buttons (DOWNLOAD, UPLOAD, COMBINED and LATENCY). This behavior is considered as clutter
- Clicking the button TEST MY DOWMLOAD SPEED gives a second screen with 5 ads, main content in 3 tabs, a button TEST MY DOWMLOAD SPEED and a button Manual Test Size. This extra screen is considered as clutter
- Clicking the second TEST MY DOWMLOAD SPEED button gives a blocking ad. This is considered as clutter
- After closing this ad, the speed test starts, with a neat progress indicator. This isn't considered as clutter
- The test result is shown at a new screen, with 4 ads and 3 tabs. The result is clearly shown and has enough whitespace, however first two stars are shown. Hovering these stars gives the hinttext "Ouch, you may have a problem...".
That is confusing and strange because the measured download speed is what I expected, and isn't problematic at all for me.
My speed test result is compared with My average download speed, the average download speed of my internet provider, the average download speed in my city, the average download speed in my country and the world average download speed. Furthermore, "test in progress" statistics and a graph of the test are shown. The way the results are presented is fine, however there is too much data I'm not interested in, hence this screen is also considered as clutter
Conclusions
When we sort the tested speed tests on the clutter-free score high to low, you get this result:
- Fast Clutter-free score: 10
- Internet Speed at a Glance Clutter-free score: 9
- Google Fiber Clutter-free score: 8
- M-Lab Clutter-free score: 8
- SpeedOf.me Clutter-free score: 5
- SpeedSmart Clutter-free score: 4
- Cloudflare Clutter-free score: 3
- Meter.net Clutter-free score: 2
- Ookla Speedtest Clutter-free score: 1
- TestMy.net Clutter-free score: 1
There are four speed tests that yield a passing grade for the clutter-free score. Fast is clearly first. Internet Speed at a Glance is second and Google Fiber and M-Lab are jointly in third place.
Note that the Ookla Speedtest has an extremely low clutter-free score.
Screen shots of the homepages
Judge for yourself at a glance how clutter-free the various speed tests are using the screenshots below.
