4 ms·

I actually pulled the reverse of this at my last job. Surprisingly, a lot of aerospace engineers are not super computer-literate. We used a clunky maneuver pl

I actually pulled the reverse of this at my last job. Surprisingly, a lot of aerospace engineers are not super computer-literate. We used a clunky maneuver planning software for the geostationary sats that spit out our plans in an ASCII printout, which we then had to copy/paste out and manipulate using several consecutive shell scripts. I got annoyed doing it and so I rewrote the whole deal in Python, and just had it locate the file that had the printout. When I first ran it, it had turned a 3-4 hour affair into about 10 minutes (depending on network connectivity). I showed it to my boss, and he was asking why it said "working...done" instantly. He said it looked like it wasn't doing anything. So I added an aesthetic wait variable to the config and made it 1.25 seconds. So the user got to see "Working..." and then "done" would pop out, making it seem more like it was actually doing things to the layperson. Last I heard they were still using that script for maneuver planning to this day.

pixl97 3y ago
I mean, honestly having the pause, or some other conformation that work was completed is useful. If you ever had a system 'fail successfully', finishing to fast does become a concern.
- p4l4g4 3y ago
  Having meaningful output is useful, artificial pauzes like this are only for dramatic effect. I rather have a linear, timestamped log, so I can confirm my suspicions, than a progress bar with artificial delays, that suggest progress. But that's the techy point of view. Most non-techies will probably prefer feel over functionality. I think most people do. If something is instant, it feels too good to be true. If something takes ages, you'll get bored or frustrated. While things that take a proportional amount of time feel satisfying.
jareklupinski 3y ago
when they ask for stuff like that, what they really want is more juice https://garden.bradwoods.io/notes/design/juice https://garden.bradwoods.io/notes/design/juice "..." is a kind of juice
- dabluecaboose 3y ago
  Oh for sure. The giant ASCII satellite name every time you run it is definitely juice, too. Even changes colors on my birthday, so i get a yearly happy birthday text from my old coworkers haha

pixl97 3y ago

I mean, honestly having the pause, or some other conformation that work was completed is useful. If you ever had a system 'fail successfully', finishing to fast does become a concern.

p4l4g4 3y ago
Having meaningful output is useful, artificial pauzes like this are only for dramatic effect. I rather have a linear, timestamped log, so I can confirm my suspicions, than a progress bar with artificial delays, that suggest progress. But that's the techy point of view. Most non-techies will probably prefer feel over functionality. I think most people do. If something is instant, it feels too good to be true. If something takes ages, you'll get bored or frustrated. While things that take a proportional amount of time feel satisfying.

jareklupinski 3y ago

when they ask for stuff like that, what they really want is more juice https://garden.bradwoods.io/notes/design/juice https://garden.bradwoods.io/notes/design/juice "..." is a kind of juice

dabluecaboose 3y ago
Oh for sure. The giant ASCII satellite name every time you run it is definitely juice, too. Even changes colors on my birthday, so i get a yearly happy birthday text from my old coworkers haha