Speed is one of the main usability criteria for web design.
If there is a splash page that fills the screen before you reach the content, you know right away that the site is going to be difficult to use since only somebody who has no respect for users' time would force them to wait for an unnecessary page to download. With the growth of the Web, usability has become a necessity for company survival. Usability is a fairly old discipline and I have worked in the field for almost 20 years. But until recently usability was not considered strategic. In fact, usability was given low priority in computer companies relative to their eternal search for more and more features.