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Obviously too late for this article, but here's a general tip: if you're going to show a bunch of comparison screen grabs, or before/after screen shots, and the

by tom_ 8y ago

Obviously too late for this article, but here's a general tip: if you're going to show a bunch of comparison screen grabs, or before/after screen shots, and the like - e.g., https://arstechnica.com/features/2018/09/macos-10-14-mojave-the-ars-technica-review/12/#h3 https://arstechnica.com/features/2018/09/macos-10-14-mojave-... - don't put a scroll effect in. Don't put a fade down then fade up effect in. It makes it too hard to see the difference. Just flick instantly between one and the next. (Possibly related: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2012/02/15/why-does-adobe-photoshop-differentiate-between-undo-and-step-backwards/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2012/02/15/why-does-adobe...)

Stratoscope 8y ago
That reminds me of something that happened when I was working at Adobe around 2002. A coworker saw me using PaintShop Pro to sort through a few photos, and he said, "But... What? You work for Adobe!" I explained, "I'd love to use Photoshop, but it fails to do the very first thing I need when I look at a batch of photos I shot in burst mode: flip back and forth between them to see which is best." PSP let me flip between two photos instantly so I could see which I liked; Photoshop couldn't do that. Every time I used Ctrl+Tab to switch photos, it first drew a placeholder checkerboard across the entire screen, and then it slowly pulled in the new photo block by block. Of course, there was probably some good technical reason for this: maybe some legacy Photoshop code designed for even older computers with little memory. But that didn't help me. The funny thing about your (valid!) complaint is that browsers are perfectly capable of doing the right thing for you when you replace one image with another - an instant visual swap. But instead, people add scrolling and fading and other effects just to show off how "designy" their site is.
- Amygaz 8y ago
  If you want a webby award, that’s what is needed.

by tom_ 8y ago

Stratoscope 8y ago

That reminds me of something that happened when I was working at Adobe around 2002. A coworker saw me using PaintShop Pro to sort through a few photos, and he said, "But... What? You work for Adobe!" I explained, "I'd love to use Photoshop, but it fails to do the very first thing I need when I look at a batch of photos I shot in burst mode: flip back and forth between them to see which is best." PSP let me flip between two photos instantly so I could see which I liked; Photoshop couldn't do that. Every time I used Ctrl+Tab to switch photos, it first drew a placeholder checkerboard across the entire screen, and then it slowly pulled in the new photo block by block. Of course, there was probably some good technical reason for this: maybe some legacy Photoshop code designed for even older computers with little memory. But that didn't help me. The funny thing about your (valid!) complaint is that browsers are perfectly capable of doing the right thing for you when you replace one image with another - an instant visual swap. But instead, people add scrolling and fading and other effects just to show off how "designy" their site is.

Amygaz 8y ago
If you want a webby award, that’s what is needed.