[maemo-developers] Launch image to increase feeling of responsiveness (a la iPhone)

[From: Ryan Pavlik]

mike saunby wrote:
>
> Here's a thought that might be of some use.  
>
> Users probably don't care too much if it takes a little longer for 
> programs to terminate.  So how about grabbing a screen-shot on exit 
> and caching it for the next time the application starts, rather like 
> caching web pages?
>
> Michael
>
What concerns me with all of these options is that while, yes, there 
will be something on the screen similar to the app sooner, it doesn't do 
anything.  (Wait a minute before jumping to a conclusion here - there's 
a bigger UI point at hand.)  I appreciate the concept of perceived 
responsiveness, however, with either the "simple/fake ui" or "last 
screenshot" approach (especially if the application doesn't resume from 
the exact point it was closed) is that you are now producing two, rather 
than one UI.  They look similar (in fact, if you do this "well" they 
look the same), except for an important difference - one is completely 
non-functional.  The user is now adjusting to two different 
environments, which may not be easily distinguishable - in which case 
the non-functional one is frustrating, or which may be distinguishable 
but looks somehow flawed or broken - leading the user to wonder what 
went wrong or what they need to do to change it.

The simplicity of the current setup is actually rather laudable - it 
unambiguously (and uniformly)  a) informs the user why they aren't able 
to use the program ("Application Web loading"),  b) reinforces that it 
hasn't stopped working (little nokia throbber), and c) doesn't introduce 
additional UI elements that could cause confusion or violate the 
principle of least surprise.  Mind you, there are still imperfections 
(for instance, the file manager gradually adding more files and folders 
to the list, rather than waiting until they are all "loaded" internally 
before displaying - violating least surprise because I don't expect that 
clicking where I saw a file a moment ago will now open the wrong file) 
but they are mostly on an application level - the nice uniform 
notification system I think is fairly well designed.  The other 
advantage, from the point of view of introducing few UI's, is that the 
loading UI is the same for all applications by default (you can't avoid 
that notification, and "faking" it like Canola is done at the 
developer's own risk), so you even eliminate the additional effectively 
null-UI's of application-specific splash screens.

I hate to bring stop energy, but I really feel that the notification 
system right now does a good job of handling the UI problem (how to keep 
the user happy while we load and not make it seem like forever) in a 
minimal way, and adding to it would likely incur a high UI cost as 
detailed above.

(For those appealing to Apple's HCI expertise, keep in mind they tend to 
like things simple - why reject the current, simple, and very workable 
solution just because they came up with a different one that I'd argue 
is less simple, and though I haven't used it, from these descriptions, 
less effective?)

Ryan

-- 
Ryan Pavlik
www.cleardefinition.com

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