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A comment on Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983. Parent comment

Re:Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower tha... by tomc1985 on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @01:23PM (#15645995)
I think animations, as most program them, slow down the UI exactly as you say.

But when their timing is tight, and the whole thing happens in under, say, half a second, you get the benefits of that context association and it still feels really cool and high-tech. People jsut set their animations too slow. (Seriously, nothing should ever take longer than 500ms)

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Re:Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower tha... by white-flame on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @01:33PM (#15646100)
I don't have a link, but in referencing interactivity tests for some remote software development I did some years back, the maximum time between pressing a button and perceiving its effect to be considered "instant" is around 200ms. You don't want to go slower than that if you want it to "feel" fast & responsive.
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Re:Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower tha... by bostik on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @02:36PM (#15646730)
You're talking about Nielsen thresholds, and the limit for "instantaneous" is actually ~100ms.[0] Anything slower is considered to have taken some time.

Now, if that wasn't depressing enough - the Nielsen research is from early 90's. In the intervening 25 years, the users have certainly not become any less impatient.

0: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-times-3-important-...

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Re:Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower tha... by tomc1985 on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @01:42PM (#15646204)
Even better. Does that give the animation enough time to show though? At that speed I'd guess you might as well make something instant
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Re:Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower tha... by Filligree on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @02:04PM (#15646406)
At 60 frames per second? Sure, that's enough for 12 frames.
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Re:Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower tha... by yason on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @02:53PM (#15646901)
People jsut set their animations too slow. (Seriously, nothing should ever take longer than 500ms)

They could start with 500ms and subtract 100ms from each UI activity after each time it is used until the delay is 0ms.

The user would learn the interactions on the screen first and then not be bothered by the animations later. As a bonus the user might actually thing the program "speeded up after a 'break-in' period".

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Re:Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower tha... by zeveb on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @09:31AM (#15652706)
Now that's an awesome idea! It'd be fine to actually just store that setting in memory, and reset with every restart: I wouldn't mind a half-second delay on my first window zoom after restart if I knew that it'd drop down to zero four zooms later.
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