It's said that the ancient Greeks had two words for time:
- Chronos is the quantitative measure of time. 5 minutes is 5 minutes.
- Kairos is the qualitative experience of time. 5 minutes might feel like 10 seconds, or an hour feels like a lifetime.
When designing humane systems for people, I think it's important to consider both elements of time in the user interface.
People with ADHD also tend to live, I think, in Kairos time. It's said that we have time blindness in which we're not that aware of how long things take.