2y ago

Optimizations? Never heard of it

36 comments

This is what I and many other programmers have done (not the removal, but fake delays), because it improves user experience, actually:
1.When the user clicks a button that should take long in their mind (like uncompressing a zip file etc) but is actually fast, it might seem like something is wrong and it didn't work
2.When the user transitions between layouts of the application, if it loads everything too fast it will look too abrupt, a fake delay will be made here if a transition animation is not possible/doesn't fit
- I was working on an enterprise web application, there was a legacy system that everyone hated and we replaced it with a more modern one.
  We got a ticket from our PO to introduce a 30 sec delay to one of our buttons. It sounded insane, but he explained that L1 support got too many calls and emails where users thought said button was broken.
  It wasn't, they were just used to having to wait up to 5 minutes for it to finish doing its thing, so they didn't notice when it did it instantly.
  We gradually removed that delay, 10 seconds each month, and our users were very happy.
- next, you'll tell people the door close button in elevators doesn't actually work.
  
  I'm pretty sure it's either a myth (that it doesn't work) or some US-centric thing, because when I worked as a delivery guy, I used to go through probably hundreds of different elevators in high-density residential buildings, and most of them have doors that stay open very long to allow baby strollers and heavy appliances to be placed inside, and on pretty much all of these the door closing button works, immediately closing the door
  
  They work in Canada but not America
- Is there a secret flag to disable the delays? Would be kinda awesome to have for "thosa in the know"
  
  Most probably not, at least in my programs I've never made a flag, because my delays are usually no more than 3 seconds anyway
- There was a financial calculator from HP that they made for decades. The newer ones were so fast doing large mortgage calculations that the users didn't trust it, so they intentionally slowed down the results.
- First reason is just poor UI design. I'm sure there are billion ways to indicate a successful action even if it was immediate.
  
  Imagine asking a person a math question like what 2 times 3 times 7 is (without you knowing the answer). If that person immediately goes like „42“ you‘ll most likely think that it’s a joke response and the person doesn’t take your question seriously. If however that person takes a few seconds to think you are much more likely to believe the answer.
- @IDatedSuccubi @ShadyShiroe
  As CS major, 1 bothers me so much.
  I see it all the time especially on calculator sites.

Used to work with a guy who would put 3 second sleeps after every line in our Jenkins file. He would then say how he's so busy because he has no time when he's always waiting for builds to run.
Chris, everyone knows what you were doing.

This is an old strategy described in this article from 2008: The Speedup Loop
- I was just about to share that article. Definitely worth the read for anyone wondering!