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Re: proposal for making ubuntu really faster

 

+1. A progress related feedback would be really useful. I think we should do the same thing at the login screen. Perhaps something similar to the 4 or 5 icons KDE shows on startup?

On 27/05/12 20:31, Omar B. wrote:
the human brain needs constant feedback and info that things are ok and you're heading the right way, specially in a not very familiar scenario (well this info and feedback is what creates the familiarity in the first place).

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Date: Sun, 27 May 2012 15:09:23 -0400
From: danielhollocher@xxxxxxxxx
To: supernova.it@xxxxxxxxx
CC: unity-design@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Unity-design] proposal for making ubuntu really faster

On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 5:53 AM, supernova <supernova.it@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:supernova.it@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

    I got this idea: let's start automatically the icons on the launcher
    at login, or at least the most used (I know preload and so on...) as
    nautilus, firefox, libreoffice. This will give the perception of fast
    start at the first click.
    So as you log in nautilus will be opened and reduced to icon on the
    launcher. When a user clicks on nautilus icon, it will open as fast as
    it was reduced to icon, and not as if we had to open it for the first
    time.
    What do you all think?

    Well, it won't make Ubuntu run faster, but will give perception of it,
    but in some sense, world is perception and appearance...


I think a better idea would be a message the first time an app loads, telling the user that it will take longer because "extra libraries are being loaded: such as a, b, c" or whatever. I think people are willing to put up with the perception of slowness as long as they know what's going on, and they know that things aren't broken (at least that's how I feel). One could also use different loading graphics for the first time startups, since I think that would communicate the same thing in a non-verbal way.

There is some design history with elevators that is relevant here. I first heard it as a proverb from someone about the difference between a social and construction engineer, but this is the only link I could find: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1005081200005

So applying that material here, the problem with the longer initial loading times is not that it is slow, it is of what the user is thinking during those initial loading times. As I said above, I personally will worry that something is wrong, or that I did something wrong, if loading times are longer than I expect. But those are just my thoughts. There are probably other negative thoughts that people think that could be taken into account.

Dan

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