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Splash screens == sloth

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Re: Splash screens == sloth

#71

Post by jiggy2011 »

saturdaysaint wrote: post #60
jiggy2011 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can probably do that with a simple smartphone app where the first screen is basically just a static menu. However with (let's say) eclipse or photoshop , when the program loads the first thing it displays is either my code or a graphic I am working on. How would it allow me to interact with that in any kind of useful way without actually loading the program?

Good question - I understand that this is a lot harder for heavy professional apps, but I'm with the author in that I'd prefer a subtler transition. Maybe show me the rudiments of the interface (toolbars, menus, etc.) and a subtle progress bar for loading/opening the app and your last file.

I'm not sure how that's any better than a splash screen in fact I think it could cause much confusion.

I created a web app recently that had to make an Ajax call but could not allow any user input until this action had completed as various parts of the UI would have to be refreshed with new information.

I had reports from users that they thought the app had crashed since it wasn't responding to their inputs for a few seconds. It turned out the best solution was to simply whiteout the entire page and show an animated egg timer until the action had completed.

It's only really heavy professional apps that take much time to start anyway.

Re: Splash screens == sloth

#72

Post by roadnottaken »

Maro wrote: post #11

This weekend the 3G mysteriously stopped working on my iPhone, so after months of use, I rebooted it. Rebooting the iPhone takes 1+ minute, and there _is_ a kind of splash screen shown during that time. The reason it appears instantenous during normal use is that it doesn't actually boot or load, it just turns the display back on. Also, many iOS apps actually have splash screens, you just don't see them very often as…

I guess this is sort-of the idea behind OSX behavior where an App is running with no open windows. They WANT you to leave everything running in the background. As a longtime Windows user, I still find this confusing, but I think they're trying to make everything appear to "load" instantly because it's just always running... sort of like on a phone.

Re: Splash screens == sloth

#73

Post by stdbrouw »

As much as I hate bloat and love svelte web apps that do just what I need and nothing more... I think we also need to accept that some people in some fields of work do pretty advanced stuff, and need pretty advanced software to do that stuff.

Adobe InDesign in particular is a huge piece of software with tons of config options and obscure features and what-not, but I've never ever found a feature that made me think "what kind of useless, bloated bullshit is this?" I think Adobe teams fight very hard against bloat, but their business is based around power users and that just leads to a different kind of software.

Re: Splash screens == sloth

#74

Post by bluedanieru »

talmand wrote: post #51
tintin wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are wrong. Everytime I start Blender (3D content creation suite) I'm blown away by the time it takes to start. Less than 2 seconds! Ready to use! Do I call Blender a complicates program? Yes I do. The feature list can compete with the one of 3ds Max.

I think it's unfair for you to call him wrong, what's wrong with what he said in the context of what he was saying? I remember Blender loading fast as well. But are you sure every single feature of the program is available as soon as the GUI is displayed? Because I wouldn't be surprised if there's some lazy loading going on. Maybe some things finish loading in the background so they are not available right away or ma…

But are you sure every single feature of the program is available as soon as the GUI is displayed?

I hope not.

Re: Splash screens == sloth

#75

Post by butterfi »

I used to adore Adobe, but it all changed over time. It started when I only needed Photoshop, and yet Adobe insisted I install several other chunks of software for services I didn't want or need. In the end, I finally found a solution that lets me get my work done without all the excess Adobe bloatware. Thank you Pixelmator!

Re: Splash screens == sloth

#76

Post by ths »

rauljara wrote: post #28

Louis CK has a fantastic rant about people complaining about technology being too slow (and technology, in general). It helped to put my own rage in perspective. I find myself getting less pissed at technology since watching it, and I kind of hope that lasts. (NSFW) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grxL5umOE6g&feature=relat...

I think that's a good attitude in general. That said, it doesn't apply to the creators themselves. I think everyone is happy that somebody took the time to obsess over speed and accuracy when making Google search, or the countless minutiae that make the iPhone's UI slick, leaving the general public to mostly just sit back and enjoy the awesomeness.

Re: Splash screens == sloth

#77

Post by yummyfajitas »

I don't use photoshop, but my emacs takes 3-5 sec to boot up.

So lets see. Supposing I use emacs for 3 hours, 5 seconds is precisely 0.04% of the time I spent using it. I'd prefer if the emacs dev team focuses on new features for me to use during the other 99.96% of the time I spend using it.

Iphone/Android apps are fast because they need to be. Often you use them for 30sec-5 min. On a 30 second use, 5 seconds is 16% of the time you spend using the app.

Re: Splash screens == sloth

#78

Post by stdbrouw »

butterfi wrote: post #75

I used to adore Adobe, but it all changed over time. It started when I only needed Photoshop, and yet Adobe insisted I install several other chunks of software for services I didn't want or need. In the end, I finally found a solution that lets me get my work done without all the excess Adobe bloatware. Thank you Pixelmator!

I can also recommend Adobe's "Elements" apps. Pixelmator is very nice, but if you've gotten used to the Adobe way of doing things and don't want to relearn, Photoshop Elements is sort of like what Photoshop used to be before the Creative Suite.

Re: Splash screens == sloth

#79

Post by why-el »

roadnottaken wrote: post #72
Maro wrote: post #11

This weekend the 3G mysteriously stopped working on my iPhone, so after months of use, I rebooted it. Rebooting the iPhone takes 1+ minute, and there _is_ a kind of splash screen shown during that time. The reason it appears instantenous during normal use is that it doesn't actually boot or load, it just turns the display back on. Also, many iOS apps actually have splash screens, you just don't see them very often as…

I guess this is sort-of the idea behind OSX behavior where an App is running with no open windows. They WANT you to leave everything running in the background. As a longtime Windows user, I still find this confusing, but I think they're trying to make everything appear to "load" instantly because it's just always running... sort of like on a phone.

+1. I find that extremely annoying. Some times I reopen a window of preview let's say just to close the whole program.

Re: Splash screens == sloth

#80

Post by rauljara »

billjings wrote: post #35
rauljara wrote: post #28

Louis CK has a fantastic rant about people complaining about technology being too slow (and technology, in general). It helped to put my own rage in perspective. I find myself getting less pissed at technology since watching it, and I kind of hope that lasts. (NSFW) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grxL5umOE6g&feature=relat...

I love Louis CK as much as the next guy, but he's not a technologist, and his perspective is not helpful to us in this context. In life, sure - have patience. Keep it in perspective. Appreciate what you have, and don't rage against things you can't change. This rant is not about life, though, it is about what makes for good and bad software. Which happens to be what we do for a living. In the grand scheme of things,…

Upvoted, because that was well said, and because I'll fully admit that CK's rant is not quite a proper response to the OP.

But I do think that the original rant was clearly someone who let his rage batter the rational part of his brain into a pulp. He mentions things like that the iPhone experience is now what constitutes "minimally usable". Except that no PC (mac or otherwise) comes close to that level of experience and people are still using/buying them, so clearly he has a different definition of minimally usable than a sane person. He's also so annoyed at having to wait that he proposes worse solutions than the wait itself (a fake UI, that still logs actions; I foresee way more frustration from that than having to look at a splash image).

Yeah, there's a lot of room to improve load times, and a well reasoned blog post on that would have been great. But when someone is ballistic to the point that they can't think straight anymore - I think a little comedic appeal to perspective isn't entirely out of line.

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