Discussion on the waiting experience design skills of App loading page

Designers can't reduce the user's wait time, but they can make the wait time interesting

In the era of experience economy, the user's impression of the waiting process directly affects the user's perception and judgment of product and service quality, and then affects the user's satisfaction and loyalty. This paper mainly discusses the two main lines of users' actual waiting time and perceived waiting time, and analyzes the principles and methods of user experience design to improve the loading page of mobile apps, so as to make users feel "elegant but not annoying waiting".

Mobile App loading page refers to a process page of application data loading, which is mainly divided into three categories: startup loading page, content loading page and download application loading page.

"Don't make me wait" has been summarized by Internet companies as the first of the three elements of user experience of Internet products. It can be said that an excellent App loading page can not only shorten the actual waiting time, make up for the defects of basic factors such as technology and network, but also bear the heavy responsibility of pursuing the ultimate experience of the product.

The user's experience of waiting on the App load page is actually influenced by two main factors - actual wait time and perceived wait time. The actual waiting time is an objective loading consumption time, which is limited by basic factors such as technology and network. The perceived waiting time is the psychological impression of the user's subjective perception. Both have an impact on the user's decision-making behavior. Reducing the actual waiting time is the basis for reducing the user's unhappiness, while applying psychological cognition and designing new models and methods to shorten the user's perceived time is the key.

Reducing the actual wait time is fundamental

From the perspective of actual waiting time analysis, the mobile App system is composed of a number of interconnections, with mutual logical relations of multi-functional whole. The user, server and the data environment in which it occurs constitute an organic system with unique service modes and queuing sequence rules. When the user issues a command to the system, if the system does not have the most efficient path to give the user feedback, there will be an actual wait, which may be a long wait. This is the actual wait for the server to process data and the lack of capacity resulting in user requests that cannot be fulfilled.

The first step is to determine the user's tolerance for the actual wait time. Because different products meet different user needs, the tolerance of users is different. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain the actual waiting time to be spent through careful testing and rigorous analysis, as well as the user's tolerance threshold. Then targeted design adjustment and optimization.

1. Optimize the interaction framework

In the case of ensuring that the user's goals are met, the interaction logic is optimized and the framework structure is simplified, so as to reduce the data processing capacity of the server and make up for the technical defects.

The interaction framework defines not only the high-level screen layout, but also the workflow, behavior, and organization of the product.

(1) Clarify the priority of functional objectives to meet user needs. This process must go back to the scenario script in the interaction design process, the persona goals and mental models, to find the most effective solutions and prioritize them based on product features. There should be no duplication of functional modules, and the task flow cannot go through or the process is too complicated.

(2) Check the interaction framework. Based on key route scenarios and common storyboards, run quest walkthroughs to ensure that each quest line is the most efficient and accessible path.

2. Determine the data loading mode based on different requirements

At present, reasonable data loading modes in App design are mainly divided into 6 types.

(1) Full-screen loading, the advantage is to ensure the integrity of the content. The disadvantages are more obvious, there is a very strong sense of waiting, and more than 3s will produce anxiety.

(2) Priority loading, a page has pictures and text, in the case of slow loading pictures, you can first load the text out to ensure that users can read smoothly, and then load the picture of the comparison fee traffic.

(3) Full-page loading, when the current page and the next page are full-page switches, you can consider using the form of full-page loading. The advantage is to ensure the integrity of each page, and the experience is more holistic. The disadvantage is that the loading efficiency of the entire page cannot be guaranteed.

(4) Automatic loading, with this technique can create an illusion of unlimited browsing, it is easy to attract users. The advantage is that it puts the user into endless browsing mode. The disadvantage is that there is no end, it is easy to get lost, and it is not convenient to quickly index to locate a certain content.

(5) Intelligent loading, the advantage is to control the flow and loading speed according to the specific scene. The disadvantage is that it is not necessarily true and effective to hit user needs.

(6) Offline loading, when the App is offline, consider the design of preloading + offline cache. The advantage is to solve the problem of obtaining data without network, and save traffic, but also ensure smooth. The disadvantage is that it occupies local storage space.

Shortening user perception time is key

The feeling of waiting time is the user's subjective feeling of waiting time in the process of waiting, which has an impact on people's decision-making behavior. According to the user's psychological characteristics from the loading concept model, non-modal loading, spice, user expectations and other aspects of the design of the loading page, so that users can easily and gracefully wait.

Provide a conceptual loading model. A good conceptual model can help users avoid confusion and help them understand what is happening. Inform the loading progress, so that users have a more clear right to know, use willing to accept the wait and can better anticipate the loading completion time. Without this information, users can guess at a conceptual model, and the process can be unsettling and fretful.

Spice up the load. Psychological duration is largely influenced by mental activity. It helps to fill the wait with interesting things to see or do to distract people or keep them busy. Through creative copy, color, dynamic effect, sound and other interesting elements to meet the user's upper needs of pleasure.

Modal loading mode. With the non-modal loading method, users can use other things to pass the waiting time, instead of waiting for the data to load, which greatly reduces the anxiety of waiting. Anxious wait times are dissipated by the user's constant browsing.

Meet or exceed expectations. When we need to set a time for waiting, it is best to appropriately set more than the real need to wait, and the completion of loading in advance will let users harvest unexpected surprises.

Hide and wait. That is, a user executing a command will receive visual feedback from the server, and the system processing is not executed but hidden. For example, wechat and Path share pictures, click send, picture immediately

It appears on the timeline. Buttons involving state switching, such as "favorite" and "favorite", generally give the user a visual feedback of the success of the operation, without waiting for the server to return the actual result of "operation success". The advantage of this is that in most cases users do not need to wait for the content to be uploaded.

Conclusion: As a part of the entire user experience, App loading page directly affects the user's loyalty and satisfaction with products and services. In the design of loading page, interactive logic framework, loading mode and meeting the needs of the upper level of the user are the important directions of thinking.

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