4 ms·

The virtual buttons are controlled by physical buttons. My mouse button already "animates" because it physically moves when I click it (and it's optical, so no

by mrob 3y ago

The virtual buttons are controlled by physical buttons. My mouse button already "animates" because it physically moves when I click it (and it's optical, so no contact bounce). I don't need another animation playing after the physical movement finishes. That's just annoying time wasting.

bmicraft 3y ago
How is it wasting time? It's not like you have to wait for the animation to complete
- mrob 3y ago
  It's delaying the feedback I use to know if I clicked correctly.
  - bmicraft 3y ago
    You know that as soon as you see the first frame of movement
    - mrob 3y ago
      That's a very small change that's a lot harder to see.
itishappy 3y ago
It's non-blocking. If those milliseconds are critical, you can be doing other stuff.
- mrob 3y ago
  Controlling a computer at maximum speed inevitably means occasional fumbled inputs. If I don't detect these, my mental state will desynchronize from the computer's state, resulting in confusion and potential data loss. Therefore I can't look away from the checkbox until I confirm it changed state. Any animation slows down this confirmation, so it wastes my time.
  - itishappy 3y ago
    Professional StarCraft players take about 200ms per action, which is about the reaction time of the human visual system. If you set your time constant to that (1/e in 200ms, which would be an extremely sluggish UI) then your UI elements will have moved by 15% in 33ms. A more reasonable response (1/e in 50ms) will have moved by 50% in 33ms. My personal favorite curve is just "move 50% per frame." I'd love to see what your day looks like if you've optimized it to require professional Counter Strike reflexes to activate toggles.
    - mrob 3y ago
      That 200ms is the natural human delay. A "reasonable" 50ms animation is in addition to that, so it's equivalent to making the user 25% slower. It's similar to moderate alcohol intoxication. I personally use 72Hz keyboard autorepeat, which requires both low latency and predictable latency to use effectively.
roywiggins 3y ago
I think the animations are more satisfying on touchscreens, where you don't have a mouse.
- mzs 3y ago
  They are literally covered by my finger, I can't even see them.
- malfist 3y ago
  Are they though? I usually use dev mode on my phone to turn off most animations because I find them needlessly distracting instead of satisfying. If I can't disable it, at least let me speed it up
dahart 3y ago
This in insightful, IMO. When attaching animation to action, if the animation doesn’t match the action, then there’s a disconnect that can be frustrating or annoying, even when the delay is a small fraction of a second. Physical light switches feel “instantaneous” because there is no added delay perceivable beyond how fast my fingers go. It does seem like some designers are sometimes so proud of their animations they run them too slowly. I do value designs that animate so quickly and smoothly that you don’t notice them until you look for it, and I feel like the article does lean in that direction. The map scrolling one feels pretty good, for example.

by mrob 3y ago

bmicraft 3y ago

How is it wasting time? It's not like you have to wait for the animation to complete

mrob 3y ago
It's delaying the feedback I use to know if I clicked correctly.
- bmicraft 3y ago
  You know that as soon as you see the first frame of movement
  - mrob 3y ago
    That's a very small change that's a lot harder to see.

itishappy 3y ago

It's non-blocking. If those milliseconds are critical, you can be doing other stuff.

mrob 3y ago
Controlling a computer at maximum speed inevitably means occasional fumbled inputs. If I don't detect these, my mental state will desynchronize from the computer's state, resulting in confusion and potential data loss. Therefore I can't look away from the checkbox until I confirm it changed state. Any animation slows down this confirmation, so it wastes my time.
- itishappy 3y ago
  Professional StarCraft players take about 200ms per action, which is about the reaction time of the human visual system. If you set your time constant to that (1/e in 200ms, which would be an extremely sluggish UI) then your UI elements will have moved by 15% in 33ms. A more reasonable response (1/e in 50ms) will have moved by 50% in 33ms. My personal favorite curve is just "move 50% per frame." I'd love to see what your day looks like if you've optimized it to require professional Counter Strike reflexes to activate toggles.
  - mrob 3y ago
    That 200ms is the natural human delay. A "reasonable" 50ms animation is in addition to that, so it's equivalent to making the user 25% slower. It's similar to moderate alcohol intoxication. I personally use 72Hz keyboard autorepeat, which requires both low latency and predictable latency to use effectively.

roywiggins 3y ago

I think the animations are more satisfying on touchscreens, where you don't have a mouse.

mzs 3y ago
They are literally covered by my finger, I can't even see them.
malfist 3y ago
Are they though? I usually use dev mode on my phone to turn off most animations because I find them needlessly distracting instead of satisfying. If I can't disable it, at least let me speed it up

dahart 3y ago

This in insightful, IMO. When attaching animation to action, if the animation doesn’t match the action, then there’s a disconnect that can be frustrating or annoying, even when the delay is a small fraction of a second. Physical light switches feel “instantaneous” because there is no added delay perceivable beyond how fast my fingers go. It does seem like some designers are sometimes so proud of their animations they run them too slowly. I do value designs that animate so quickly and smoothly that you don’t notice them until you look for it, and I feel like the article does lean in that direction. The map scrolling one feels pretty good, for example.