7 ms·

I wonder how much of this is a result of UI designers deliberately putting tiny delays/animations into their UIs to make them more "usable"? For example, it wa

I wonder how much of this is a result of UI designers deliberately putting tiny delays/animations into their UIs to make them more "usable"? For example, it was a common piece of advice that if clicking a button opens up a dialog box, there should be a brief animation showing the box expanding from the direction of the button, so the user would associate the clicking of the button with the appearance of the box and understand where it came from. This does actually improve usability the first few times it happens, but over hundreds of iterations these tiny delays really slow down the overall experience of using the interface.

epistasis 9y ago
That's a huge frustration with current web pages for me, and for iOS. Animations that stall interaction rather then enable it do exactly the opposite funtction. And if you're ever in a situation where interactions get chained from user requests, like the bug in the iOS calculator, you're gone way off the path on your UI
- acdha 9y ago
  Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Reduce Motion on iOS is a really nice way to improve the subjective interface speed.
  - epistasis 9y ago
    That had zero effect on the interaction-halting animations for me. I'm not opposed to animation, I'm opposed to animation that makes the phone unresponsive and not listen to input, or delays the display of information for more than 200-300ms. Unfortunately the "Reduce Motion" only seems to be for some very minor things.
kgwxd 9y ago
Just last week I discovered I could disable animations in Android through the hidden developer options. It's fabulous. The only initial quirk was no visual feedback when a picture is successfully taken, so it felt like i missed the button, but I've gotten used to it already.
- ashleyn 9y ago
  I've done this as well. It reminds me of when I upgraded PalmOS devices in Ye Olde Days and home would appear instantly when you tapped it.
- xnzakg 9y ago
  You can also speed them up a bit. Makes the phone seem a lot snappier without breaking apps that seem to rely on animations for timing (I'm looking at you, messenger's "share" feature which doesn't have a send delay if you disable animations)
- Declanomous 9y ago
  Another bonus is how much longer your battery lasts without animations. I'm pretty sure battery saver just turns off tactile response, and disables animations for the most part (in addition to changing the gps update speed if you are using location services)
- paulddraper 9y ago
  !!!!! That is a amazing!!! I had no idea developer meant "interested user". > Make sure developer options are enabled. If they're not, go to Settings > About phone, then tap on Build number several times to enable it > Go to Settings > Developer options, and scroll down to Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. > Tap on each of the animation options and turn them off. https://lifehacker.com/disable-animations-on-android-to-improve-performance-1583554900 https://lifehacker.com/disable-animations-on-android-to-impr...
  - jasonkostempski 9y ago
    On my first try I accidentally tapped "Android version" instead of "Build number" :)
    - gokhan 9y ago
      on 7.x, that leads to an easter egg.
catgirl666 9y ago
I think a lot of this true!
yorwba 9y ago
Maybe those animations could be sped up with continued use. Then new users get the visual connection between their actions and the response, while experienced users don't have to wait as long for the animation to play.
jseliger 9y ago
You inspired me to look up how to turn off animations in MacOS; this has some answers: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/14001/how-to-turn-off-all-animations-on-os-x https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/14001/how-to-turn-... although I can't vouch for their accuracy.
wnevets 9y ago
>I wonder how much of this is a result of UI designers deliberately putting tiny delays/animations into their UIs to make them more "usable"? I disable most if not all of the animations on my android phone and windows desktops for that very reason. The animations make for great tech demos but also makes everything feel so much slower when trying to get things done.
tomc1985 9y ago
I think animations, as most program them, slow down the UI exactly as you say. But when their timing is tight, and the whole thing happens in under, say, half a second, you get the benefits of that context association and it still feels really cool and high-tech. People jsut set their animations too slow. (Seriously, nothing should ever take longer than 500ms)
- white-flame 9y ago
  I don't have a link, but in referencing interactivity tests for some remote software development I did some years back, the maximum time between pressing a button and perceiving its effect to be considered "instant" is around 200ms. You don't want to go slower than that if you want it to "feel" fast & responsive.
  - tomc1985 9y ago
    Even better. Does that give the animation enough time to show though? At that speed I'd guess you might as well make something instant
    - Filligree 9y ago
      At 60 frames per second? Sure, that's enough for 12 frames.
  - bostik 9y ago
    You're talking about Nielsen thresholds, and the limit for "instantaneous" is actually ~100ms.[0] Anything slower is considered to have taken some time. Now, if that wasn't depressing enough - the Nielsen research is from early 90's. In the intervening 25 years, the users have certainly not become any less impatient. 0: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-times-3-important-limits/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-times-3-important-...
- yason 9y ago
  People jsut set their animations too slow. (Seriously, nothing should ever take longer than 500ms) They could start with 500ms and subtract 100ms from each UI activity after each time it is used until the delay is 0ms. The user would learn the interactions on the screen first and then not be bothered by the animations later. As a bonus the user might actually thing the program "speeded up after a 'break-in' period".
vlasev 9y ago
No other UI infuriates me more than the McDonalds ordering UI at their locations. Everything is all over the place and the animations make it 100x slower.
mnm1 9y ago
A lot. Just take a look at the desktop switching animation in OS X that's been there now for years. I bring that up anytime anyone tries to suggest Apple has decent design sense. No sane UI designer would put something like that in without the possibility of disabling it (like their other shitty animations). To be clear, any UI designer who hasn't understood the absolute fact that after a hundred or a thousand times, any animation becomes despised by a large fraction of one's user base shouldn't be working in this field. A lot of these unqualified people also apparently make a lot of videogames with un-skippable cut scenes. Same idea. Same stupidity and lack of any forethought whatsoever about the user's experience. It's almost like they're making this software with only the manufacturer's goals of looking 'shiny', 'sleek', or whatever dumb adjective of the day people who don't understand tech use to describe it. Oh, wait a second ...
- Veen 9y ago
  You can cut down on those pointless MacOS animations if you turn on "Reduce Motion" in the accessibility settings.
- hawski 9y ago
  Few years back when I had to use OSX I tried to use native workspaces. The switch workspaces animation was already too long for me the first time. In Windows there are (were?) at least all those registry edits that one can do to do whatever one pleases. Also Windows has the adjust all visual effects for best performance setting. But I couldn't find anything for OSX. An example of the way I use workspaces: - one workspace for terminal, browser with documentation and some text editor - second workspace for a full-blown IDE, another browser window with documentation and the developed application It's funny that there are easy solutions to the cut scene problem. If user skips the cut scene there could be a little message that if you press some key the cut scene will replay. And/or give the list of all cut scenes to the point somewhere in the menu. But most of the time cut scenes are there to bring the cinematic experience and are easy and lazy thing to do...
tandav 9y ago
Who knows how to completely disable all animations in macOS? I've tried many from this list https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/14001/how-to-turn-off-all-animations-on-os-x#63477 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/14001/how-to-turn-... but it seems that most of commands doesn't actually make any affect

epistasis 9y ago

That's a huge frustration with current web pages for me, and for iOS. Animations that stall interaction rather then enable it do exactly the opposite funtction. And if you're ever in a situation where interactions get chained from user requests, like the bug in the iOS calculator, you're gone way off the path on your UI

acdha 9y ago
Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Reduce Motion on iOS is a really nice way to improve the subjective interface speed.
- epistasis 9y ago
  That had zero effect on the interaction-halting animations for me. I'm not opposed to animation, I'm opposed to animation that makes the phone unresponsive and not listen to input, or delays the display of information for more than 200-300ms. Unfortunately the "Reduce Motion" only seems to be for some very minor things.

kgwxd 9y ago

Just last week I discovered I could disable animations in Android through the hidden developer options. It's fabulous. The only initial quirk was no visual feedback when a picture is successfully taken, so it felt like i missed the button, but I've gotten used to it already.

ashleyn 9y ago
I've done this as well. It reminds me of when I upgraded PalmOS devices in Ye Olde Days and home would appear instantly when you tapped it.
xnzakg 9y ago
You can also speed them up a bit. Makes the phone seem a lot snappier without breaking apps that seem to rely on animations for timing (I'm looking at you, messenger's "share" feature which doesn't have a send delay if you disable animations)
Declanomous 9y ago
Another bonus is how much longer your battery lasts without animations. I'm pretty sure battery saver just turns off tactile response, and disables animations for the most part (in addition to changing the gps update speed if you are using location services)
paulddraper 9y ago
!!!!! That is a amazing!!! I had no idea developer meant "interested user". > Make sure developer options are enabled. If they're not, go to Settings > About phone, then tap on Build number several times to enable it > Go to Settings > Developer options, and scroll down to Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. > Tap on each of the animation options and turn them off. https://lifehacker.com/disable-animations-on-android-to-improve-performance-1583554900 https://lifehacker.com/disable-animations-on-android-to-impr...
- jasonkostempski 9y ago
  On my first try I accidentally tapped "Android version" instead of "Build number" :)
  - gokhan 9y ago
    on 7.x, that leads to an easter egg.

catgirl666 9y ago

I think a lot of this true!

yorwba 9y ago

Maybe those animations could be sped up with continued use. Then new users get the visual connection between their actions and the response, while experienced users don't have to wait as long for the animation to play.

jseliger 9y ago

You inspired me to look up how to turn off animations in MacOS; this has some answers: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/14001/how-to-turn-off-all-animations-on-os-x https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/14001/how-to-turn-... although I can't vouch for their accuracy.

wnevets 9y ago

>I wonder how much of this is a result of UI designers deliberately putting tiny delays/animations into their UIs to make them more "usable"? I disable most if not all of the animations on my android phone and windows desktops for that very reason. The animations make for great tech demos but also makes everything feel so much slower when trying to get things done.

tomc1985 9y ago

I think animations, as most program them, slow down the UI exactly as you say. But when their timing is tight, and the whole thing happens in under, say, half a second, you get the benefits of that context association and it still feels really cool and high-tech. People jsut set their animations too slow. (Seriously, nothing should ever take longer than 500ms)

white-flame 9y ago
I don't have a link, but in referencing interactivity tests for some remote software development I did some years back, the maximum time between pressing a button and perceiving its effect to be considered "instant" is around 200ms. You don't want to go slower than that if you want it to "feel" fast & responsive.
- tomc1985 9y ago
  Even better. Does that give the animation enough time to show though? At that speed I'd guess you might as well make something instant
  - Filligree 9y ago
    At 60 frames per second? Sure, that's enough for 12 frames.
- bostik 9y ago
  You're talking about Nielsen thresholds, and the limit for "instantaneous" is actually ~100ms.[0] Anything slower is considered to have taken some time. Now, if that wasn't depressing enough - the Nielsen research is from early 90's. In the intervening 25 years, the users have certainly not become any less impatient. 0: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-times-3-important-limits/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-times-3-important-...
yason 9y ago
People jsut set their animations too slow. (Seriously, nothing should ever take longer than 500ms) They could start with 500ms and subtract 100ms from each UI activity after each time it is used until the delay is 0ms. The user would learn the interactions on the screen first and then not be bothered by the animations later. As a bonus the user might actually thing the program "speeded up after a 'break-in' period".

vlasev 9y ago

No other UI infuriates me more than the McDonalds ordering UI at their locations. Everything is all over the place and the animations make it 100x slower.

mnm1 9y ago

A lot. Just take a look at the desktop switching animation in OS X that's been there now for years. I bring that up anytime anyone tries to suggest Apple has decent design sense. No sane UI designer would put something like that in without the possibility of disabling it (like their other shitty animations). To be clear, any UI designer who hasn't understood the absolute fact that after a hundred or a thousand times, any animation becomes despised by a large fraction of one's user base shouldn't be working in this field. A lot of these unqualified people also apparently make a lot of videogames with un-skippable cut scenes. Same idea. Same stupidity and lack of any forethought whatsoever about the user's experience. It's almost like they're making this software with only the manufacturer's goals of looking 'shiny', 'sleek', or whatever dumb adjective of the day people who don't understand tech use to describe it. Oh, wait a second ...

Veen 9y ago
You can cut down on those pointless MacOS animations if you turn on "Reduce Motion" in the accessibility settings.
hawski 9y ago
Few years back when I had to use OSX I tried to use native workspaces. The switch workspaces animation was already too long for me the first time. In Windows there are (were?) at least all those registry edits that one can do to do whatever one pleases. Also Windows has the adjust all visual effects for best performance setting. But I couldn't find anything for OSX. An example of the way I use workspaces: - one workspace for terminal, browser with documentation and some text editor - second workspace for a full-blown IDE, another browser window with documentation and the developed application It's funny that there are easy solutions to the cut scene problem. If user skips the cut scene there could be a little message that if you press some key the cut scene will replay. And/or give the list of all cut scenes to the point somewhere in the menu. But most of the time cut scenes are there to bring the cinematic experience and are easy and lazy thing to do...

tandav 9y ago

Who knows how to completely disable all animations in macOS? I've tried many from this list https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/14001/how-to-turn-off-all-animations-on-os-x#63477 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/14001/how-to-turn-... but it seems that most of commands doesn't actually make any affect