Re: Should Cocoa Apps have splash screens at all ?
Re: Should Cocoa Apps have splash screens at all ?
- Subject: Re: Should Cocoa Apps have splash screens at all ?
- From: "John C. Daub" <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 07:03:44 -0500
- Thread-topic: Should Cocoa Apps have splash screens at all ?
on 4/23/06 5:36 PM, Erik Buck at email@hidden wrote:
> I did a quick search of Apple's guidelines and did not come up with
> definitive guidance. Does anyone know Apple's recommendation
> regarding the use of splash screens ?
I have never seen an official statement (like in the Human Interface
Guidelines) about splash screens one way or the other.
> There are Apple examples of how to create a Java splash screen.
> There are Apple examples of how to create a QuickTime splash screen.
Examples are good to demonstrate a point, not necessarily to give a
recommendation to or not to do something.
> Are there any Apple applications that use a splash screen ?
> Are there any non-Microsoft and non-Adobe applications that use a
> splash screen on the Mac ?
This is being discussed elsewhere in the thread. :-)
> Do splash screens exist to brand an application or do give users
> something to look at while the application slowly loads application
> data or both ?
Sure, why not. :-) I mean, if there's no hard guideline for splash
screens, then people will use them for whatever reason they see fit... I
doubt there's any one solid answer here.
Of the splash screens I see, that's often the case. They tell what the
product is, who made it, might display registration information, copyright
and other legal notices, and may also give some progress as to what is going
on.
Me, I don't think a splash screen is necessary and generally have other bits
of app functionality that I think my time is better spent coding. So, if the
splash would have no functional purpose I probably wouldn't bother with
one... but that's me. But, if there was functional purpose, I'd consider it.
Perhaps the app takes a long time to launch because it has to configure a
lot of things, read in a lot of files, load plugins, whatever... and it
takes time. You don't want to leave the user hanging longer than a couple
seconds else they'll start to wonder what is going on... so giving some sort
of progress (be it a simple progress bar in a dialog, or something more
elaborate and pretty), that could be a good thing.
Of course, if your app takes a while to load, perhaps you could reconsider
design. Maybe there's a way to get your app launched and started but limited
functionality is available while other things load in the background (via
threads or some such). For instance, I use Microsoft Entourage and I have a
huge mail database. When Entourage launches it works to open the mail
database, and that can take a little time... and sometimes I don't care
about the mail database, I just want to get to writing some email. So I
always thought it'd be nice if Entourage could immediately launch and allow
me limited functionality, like I could compose a new email...then in the
background it works to open up the mail database. It's a little harder to
do, but it could give a better user experience. Now, I'm not saying this is
something Entourage could support, as I know nothing about its internals.
But I'm just giving an example of something to think about.
> Does the use of a splash screen foretell a non-Mac like experience ?
I don't think so. I have seen some apps give users a preference to not
display the splash, or the splash goes away immediately upon being
clicked... and if so, is there any point to the splash other than cosmetics?
and if so, is it worth all that extra engineering time and maintenance in
the first place?
> Do the users of splash screens intend their splash windows to cover
> whatever else the user is working on and prevent them from doing any
> other work ? If so, why ?
Probably all depends upon the particular splash screen in the particular
app.
I think anything that gets in the user's way of getting work accomplished on
the user's time table isn't a good thing (unless there's a darn good
reason).
> How do splash screens supplement the bouncing dock icon ?
More pretty things for you to look at while things start up? :-)
Seriously, the bigger question is why are you considering a splash screen? I
don't think it's un-Mac-like or Evil to use a splash screen, but just
consider what it brings to your app and if it's truly bringing something of
worth or not. Every bit of code you write is code you have to test,
maintain, and deal with... KISS, keep it simple stupid, and does the splash
screen meet that end?
Good luck.
--
John C. Daub }:-)>=
<mailto:email@hidden> <http://www.hsoi.com/>
"Arglebargle, glop-glyf!?!"
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