3 ms·

"I can't think of a single legitimate use case that couldn't be solved better than by hiding your true capabilities, and thus wasting people's time." Consider

"I can't think of a single legitimate use case that couldn't be solved better than by hiding your true capabilities, and thus wasting people's time." Consider a loading spinner with a line of copy that explains what's happening. Say it's for an action that can take anywhere from 20 milliseconds to several seconds, based on a combination of factors that are hard to predict beforehand. At the low end, showing the spinner will result in it flashing on the screen jarringly for just a frame. To the user it will appear as some kind of visual glitch since they won't have time to even make out what it is, much less read the copy. In situations like this, it's often a good idea to introduce an artificial delay up to a floor that gives the user time to register what's happening and read the copy.

icebraining 7y ago
Wouldn't it be better to delay the appearance of the spinner, so it doesn't show at all for those fast operations?
- danenania 7y ago
  You can still end up with the jarring flash. Say you delay 100ms--if the action takes 120ms, you have the same problem.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    Flash is good. If the state transition is "no indicator -> spinner -> checkmark", then if the user notices the spinner flashing for one frame, that only ensures them the task was actually performed. It's a real case, actually. I don't remember a name, but I've encountered this situation in the past, and that brief flash of a "in progress" marker was what I used to determine whether me clicking a "retry" button actually did something, or whether the input was just ignored. It's one of those unexpected benefits of predictability of UI coding; the less special cases there are, the better.
- ljm 7y ago
  This doesn't work well in apps but games do incredible things to hide that state; and it's partially a consequence of avoiding a patent on minigames inside loading screens. e.g. back in the 90s with Resi 1, the loading screen was hidden by a slow and tense animation of a door opening. It totally fit the atmosphere. Plenty of games add an elevator or a scripted vehicle ride, or some ridiculous door locking mechanism that serves the same purpose without breaking immersion, especially as those faux-loading screens can be dynamic. It's pretty much the exact same technique used in cinema when a director wants to stitch multiple takes into a single shot (e.g. that episode in True Detective; that other one in Mr Robot; all of Birdman).

icebraining 7y ago

Wouldn't it be better to delay the appearance of the spinner, so it doesn't show at all for those fast operations?

danenania 7y ago
You can still end up with the jarring flash. Say you delay 100ms--if the action takes 120ms, you have the same problem.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Flash is good. If the state transition is "no indicator -> spinner -> checkmark", then if the user notices the spinner flashing for one frame, that only ensures them the task was actually performed. It's a real case, actually. I don't remember a name, but I've encountered this situation in the past, and that brief flash of a "in progress" marker was what I used to determine whether me clicking a "retry" button actually did something, or whether the input was just ignored. It's one of those unexpected benefits of predictability of UI coding; the less special cases there are, the better.
ljm 7y ago
This doesn't work well in apps but games do incredible things to hide that state; and it's partially a consequence of avoiding a patent on minigames inside loading screens. e.g. back in the 90s with Resi 1, the loading screen was hidden by a slow and tense animation of a door opening. It totally fit the atmosphere. Plenty of games add an elevator or a scripted vehicle ride, or some ridiculous door locking mechanism that serves the same purpose without breaking immersion, especially as those faux-loading screens can be dynamic. It's pretty much the exact same technique used in cinema when a director wants to stitch multiple takes into a single shot (e.g. that episode in True Detective; that other one in Mr Robot; all of Birdman).