Network Throttling

Network Throttling Skill

Simulate slow or offline network conditions during user testing. Tests how well sites handle poor connectivity.

When to Use

• Testing loading states and spinners
• Validating offline/PWA functionality
• Simulating real-world mobile conditions
• Testing error handling for slow requests
• Pairing with bad-connection-user persona

Network Presets

slow-3g

Simulates a poor mobile connection:

Use for: Testing patience thresholds, loading indicators, progressive loading

fast-3g

Simulates a decent mobile connection:

Use for: Typical mobile user experience, image loading, API response times

offline

Simulates no network access:

Use for: Service worker testing, offline fallbacks, cached content

Implementation via CDP

Network throttling uses Chrome DevTools Protocol:

async (page) => {
  const client = await page.context().newCDPSession(page);

  await client.send('Network.emulateNetworkConditions', {
    offline: false,
    downloadThroughput: 50000,   // bytes/sec (400 Kbps)
    uploadThroughput: 50000,
    latency: 400                 // ms
  });

  return 'Network throttling applied';
}

Throughput Conversion

Persona Patience Adjustment

When throttling is active, automatically adjust persona timing:

Testing Patterns

Loading States

1. Apply slow-3g throttling
2. Navigate to page
3. Observe: Does spinner appear? How long until content?
4. Narrate: "This is taking a while... at least there's a loading indicator."

Offline Mode

1. Apply offline throttling
2. Try to navigate
3. Observe: Does site handle gracefully? Cached content?
4. Narrate: "Nothing's loading. Let me check if there's an offline mode..."

Progressive Loading

1. Apply fast-3g throttling
2. Navigate to image-heavy page
3. Observe: Do images load progressively? Placeholders?
4. Narrate: "The text loaded first, images are still coming in..."

Report Section

When network throttling is used, include in report:

## Session Overview
- **Network**: slow-3g (400 Kbps, 400ms latency)

## Network Experience

### Loading Performance
- Page load time: ~8 seconds
- First meaningful paint: ~3 seconds
- Loading indicator: Yes/No

### Issues Under Throttling
- [List issues exacerbated by slow network]

### Positive Behaviors
- [What the site did well under poor conditions]

Combination Testing

Mobile + Slow Network

Most realistic mobile testing:

/user-test --url https://example.com --persona genz-digital-native --viewport mobile --network slow-3g

Tests: Real-world mobile conditions where users are impatient AND on poor connections.

Bad Connection Persona + Throttling

Full experience simulation:

/user-test --url https://example.com --persona bad-connection-user --network slow-3g

The bad-connection-user persona already has higher patience for slow loads. Adding actual throttling makes the simulation realistic.

Best Practices

1. Start with fast-3g: Most common real-world scenario
2. Use slow-3g for stress testing: Catches edge cases
3. Test offline intentionally: PWA and service worker validation
4. Combine with mobile viewport: Most realistic testing
5. Match persona expectations: Don't use slow-3g with impatient personas unless testing abandonment
6. Note loading indicators: Key UX element under slow conditions