Re: [Usability] visiual feedback while starting

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004, David Christian Berg wrote:

> Date: Tue, 09 Nov 2004 13:10:28 +0100
> From: David Christian Berg <david sipsolutions net>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] visiual feedback while starting
>
> I had a friend of mine work on my computer yesterday, telling him, what
> to do, via telephone. He was really confused that there was no visiual
> feedback right away when programs (galeon (I know, it's in the window
> list),

It has startup notification right?
Was the hourglass (or other) cursor too subtle?

Having applications show up in the window list as soon as possible seems
like a good idea, if galeon can do it perhaps more applictoins should be
doing it?

> inkscape and I think evolution it was as well as OOO, which shows
> the splash only after a while) were starting. Now splash screens that
> are always on top (scribus) are _really_ annoying since you can't keep
> on working with them in place.

I expect you know that as a QT application on a (presumably) Gnome desktop
Scribus is going to have a slower startup than if you were using KDE, so
the developers may be unaware of quite how annoying this is so I would
encourage you to try and check with a newer version and file a bug report
with them.  The scribus developers seem pretty good (they are actively
cooperating with the Inkscape developers) and I expect they would
appreciate the feedback.

> OOO splash is quite nice, but it takes to
> long until it shows up. Is there a reasonable HIG, how the feedback
> should be handled?

Not that I'm aware of but that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't.

I'd always beg developers to get their applictions to try and start
faster, and only load what they need immediately.  Even if an application
"needs" to load everything all the time (for the sake of brevity I'll
leave that arguement for another day) they should prioritize and make sure
to load the user visible parts as soon as possible and pospone loading
other components (like plug-ins or print support etc) until they are
needed or until the appliction has been already started running.  If
applications started faster splash screens would be unnecessary.

To me a splash screen is a bandage on a bigger problem not a desirable
solution of itself and not something we should focus too much time on.
The feedback a splash screen provides is it's only redeeming feature,
usually it is annoying adverstising (particularly in cases where it really
gets in your face and cannot be dismissed as you mentioned).

> Just a thought.
>
> David

Sorry I cannot suggest ways to fix the specific problem you were asking
about, I'm too bothered by the larger problem of developers thinking it is
a good idea to load everything immediately at startup.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
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