This is very beautiful, and it's great -- no, essential -- to think of your users!
But speaking of that, please THINK of your users and despise loading times. Hate them with a passion. As they say, kill them with fire!
Do NOT make them prettier, it only makes it easy to think it's OK. It is not OK! Your app can load faster. Way faster. It's easier than you think. And even if it's not, it's worth it.
When you have done everything you can do to speed up the loading time, NOW you can think about loading screens.
Except, don't make it a loading screen. Fake it. Make it look like you loaded faster than you did:
- Let the fastest content load asynchronously with the slower content.
- Is caching for your entire app too hard? Start by caching the entry points from previous visits and show that (although beware of unsettling flashes/jumps in data!)
- If that's too hard, fake it with a screenshot from the last view the user saw (it's been done -- iOS apps).
Once you've done all the above, and exhausted every other idea that you can think of because you know your users better then I do...
... then, only then, you can think -- for maybe an hour or two -- about making the gap a nicer experience. But remember, it must be a NICE experience. BEAUTIFUL does not always equal NICE.
And until that gap is gone, never cross this item off your list!
[Disclaimer: To the creators of this module, I'm not saying your time has been wasted. I'm only talking to app owners, not to you! Thanks for thinking of how to make bad things better! ]
But speaking of that, please THINK of your users and despise loading times. Hate them with a passion. As they say, kill them with fire!
Do NOT make them prettier, it only makes it easy to think it's OK. It is not OK! Your app can load faster. Way faster. It's easier than you think. And even if it's not, it's worth it.
When you have done everything you can do to speed up the loading time, NOW you can think about loading screens.
Except, don't make it a loading screen. Fake it. Make it look like you loaded faster than you did:
- Let the fastest content load asynchronously with the slower content.
- Is caching for your entire app too hard? Start by caching the entry points from previous visits and show that (although beware of unsettling flashes/jumps in data!)
- If that's too hard, fake it with a screenshot from the last view the user saw (it's been done -- iOS apps).
Once you've done all the above, and exhausted every other idea that you can think of because you know your users better then I do...
... then, only then, you can think -- for maybe an hour or two -- about making the gap a nicer experience. But remember, it must be a NICE experience. BEAUTIFUL does not always equal NICE.
And until that gap is gone, never cross this item off your list!
[Disclaimer: To the creators of this module, I'm not saying your time has been wasted. I'm only talking to app owners, not to you! Thanks for thinking of how to make bad things better! ]