3 ms·
This appealing fallacy is part of the reason, but way too broad in general (and is also not reflected in the flat design land of today, but even before that alm
by eviks 3y ago
This appealing fallacy is part of the reason, but way too broad in general (and is also not reflected in the flat design land of today, but even before that almost nothing was really skeumorphically close to reality), so let's try to apply it to this specific case: you usually click on a slider, not drag it. So in this case, there is nothing "physical" on the user's intuition side that corresponds to the slider sliding. But that's exactly my question - what's the point of emphasizing the sliding? And taken your physical connection into account, the UI element should become a button
And if you expect users to slide, then the slider should reflect the speed of your mouse like a physical control commongly would, not that of some random algorithm, no?
- jotaen 3y ago> what's the point of emphasizing the sliding? Because the “knob” changes position. Like in the real world, objects can’t disappear in one place, and then instantly appear in another. Animating a UI state change in terms of a move transition can help people to understand how both end-states are logically connected to each other. The animation resembles the mechanics of the slider knob being a “perpetual entity” that can move between two positions, rather than the slider control as a whole being some sort of static icon that is instantly swapped out for another static icon once I click on it. Whether or not animations are necessary might still be arguable. I suppose it depends on the complexity of the UI control, on personal preference, and certainly also on the general level of technical familiarity of the end-user.
- alpaca128 3y agoI don't know about you but I probably wouldn't notice if my light switch suddenly moved to the opposite position instantly instead of in 50ms or something. And animations wouldn't be quite as annoying if they actually were that fast.
- jotaen 3y agoYou might not consciously observe how your light switch transitions to the opposite position, but I’d argue that most people still have an immediate and intuitive understanding of how both end-states of a light switch are related to them applying physical force onto the switch. The toggle transition is supposed to resemble this notion, and aims to allow the user to build up an analogous mental model of cause and effect. To me, this sounds like a valid and worthwhile idea in general. That animations are not always appropriate or fitting, or that they sometimes are laggy and sluggish, is a different story.