Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman produces some great research. His latest study shows that we are now walking faster than we did ten years ago. It seems that we are now walking 10% faster than we did back in the 1990s. According to the study we are now living a faster paced life and this is reflected in our walking pace.

It’s also reflected in anecdotal evidence that people tend to speak more quickly these days – especially younger people. Equally, there is research which shows that younger people are better able to multi-task, often taking part in conversations while reading text messages at the same time. Only the other day someone said to me they were infuriated when they were with a friend whose mobile phone rang and that person decided to answer the phone mid-conversation.

All of these actions are a reflection that we are in a “get it done now” society. There’s lots to do and it must be done now. Of course that isn’t actually true; we don’t have to do everything “now” – lots of things could wait. However, social pressures make us more likely to do everything as though it had an immediate deadline.

What this means for anyone running a business online is that you have even less time to capture your audience. They want it now, not later; they want obvious, not thoughtful and they want it this second. In other words if your page design, your headline, your layout doesn’t shout “this is exactly what you want” you are likely to lose the attention of the “fast walking generation”. As the pace of life shoots up, so must your web site become increasingly focused and attention grabbing.