Re:UI Web Design 5 Rules of Thumb
by psygn89 on Friday December 23, 2022 @10:51AM
(#34107099)
On the opposite side of jarring there are times where an app refresh action works so fast that users think that it's broken since they didn't visually see a change (even though it did refresh and there is nothing new to show).
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My solution to that is to simply have a last updated time on the page with precision down to seconds. Just update it to the current time every time there's a response from the server even if it's empty.
Re:UI Web Design 5 Rules of Thumb
by HellsMaddy on Friday December 23, 2022 @02:14PM
(#34109566)
You’re thinking way too much like an engineer. Humans aren’t robots. Your solution would work great for a JSON payload, but not well for humans at all.
Your solution adds complexity to the page content with very little, if any, payoff. It requires the user to be aware of the precise time, to be aware of whether a very small region of the page has changed ever so slightly, and does not provide any additional value beyond acting as a poor proxy for whether the user’s attempt to refresh did anything.
A short loading animation is easily visible to the user (we’re great at seeing motion), it’s immediately obvious what it means, and it vanishes as soon as it’s no longer relevant. It communicates exactly the necessary information, no more, no less.
"Wait did the page actually refresh? I better hard refresh just be to safe..."
Re:UI Web Design 5 Rules of Thumb
by charrondev on Friday December 23, 2022 @09:11PM
(#34113138)
For this reason the software I work on pops up a subtle (and auto dismissing) little confirmation toast.
I find a small acknowledgement that the thing works is better than just having an arbitrarily long loading indicator.