Deterministic time-based predictability of vibrotactile stimulation reduces user response time

System delays can affect user experience and performance. We conducted two experiments where we investigated whether time-based predictability of vibrotactile stimulation could reduce user response time. In a two-choice reaction task, participants responded to vibrotactile stimulation to their fingers by key presses. We manipulated the predictivity of delays, so that they would be deterministically predictive (in Exp. 1) or probabilistically predictive (in Exp. 2) and compared them to a non-predictive condition where two possible delays were equally distributed over both target stimuli. We found that predictive delays for vibrotactile stimuli lead to faster and more accurate user responses, but only when the duration of these delays predicts the following event in a deterministic manner. These results have implications for human computer interfaces where tactile feedback substituting visual or auditory stimuli is necessary.