It is the first time to write a product-related article. Let’s start from the App launch! Most apps start with a single page: a Splash page. This article will discuss how to use a Splash page.

What is a Splash page

Splash page definition:

When an App starts, it takes a certain amount of time to start, and there are often transition pages (or animations) used during the startup process, which are called startup pages. They are often called Splash or Splash pages because they appear every time an application is opened and often stay for a short time, like a flash effect.

Why do we need a start page? The reason is that at the moment the App is opened, the system needs to load the resources of the application, maybe load some cache resources, and maybe make network requests, which all take a certain amount of time. If there is no feedback or other form of presentation during this time, the user will assume that there is something wrong with the application and may become frustrated because they have waited too long to get the results they expected. And this start time objectively exists, so some people put forward that it is better to use the start page to do something, such as:

Convey the message (business message, the core role of the product), the story or the humanity of the product

Someone on the application of the startup page also summed up: the application of the golden seven-second startup page there is a point of view about how much time the startup page is controlled:

The best time for the launch page is under 3 seconds. If the time exceeds 3 seconds, users will feel anxious. If there is no feedback from the launch page, such as the loading process, users will easily quit the application directly.

Therefore, some applications will stay on the Splash page for a longer time, so that users can pay more attention to the startup page, so as to achieve:

  1. Brand publicity
  2. Emotional resonance
  3. Scene story interpretation

What about the current status of the Splash page?

Splash the status quo

Classic pages of wechat:

WeChat

Weibo:

weibo

Beautiful:

Only beautiful

Feelings:

feelings

Interactive:

More than one

Start each time, and Splash page drives the painting:

drops

After each startup, there will be another page after playing:

ofo1

ofo2

What Splash page should I use

What Splash page should I use? Before answering this question, two points: In his New Year’s Eve speech in 2017, Luo Zhenyu said a time battlefield point of view:

In the future, in the battle of time, there are two skills that will be particularly valuable. The second is to help others spend the time they save on wonderful things.

Zhang Xiaolong explained the concept of “use it and go” in his wechat open class:

Any product is just a tool, and a good tool for a tool is to get the job done as efficiently as possible and then leave as soon as possible.

They all express the fact that the user’s time is limited, limited time should be spent on useful things, limited time should be spent on beautiful things, wasting the user’s time and not doing valuable things in product design. For example, the Splash page should not exist. What would a good Splash page look like? Here’s what Apple’s “iOS Human Interface Guidelines” say about booting:

To enhance the user experience when the application starts up, you should provide a launch image. The launch image looks very similar to the first screen of the application. When the user taps your app icon on the home screen, iPhone OS displays this launch image immediately. Once ready, your application displays its first screen instead of the start placeholder image. It is important to emphasize that the launch images are provided to improve the user experience, not to provide “application entry experience” such as launch animated “about” window branding elements, unless they are a static part of your application’s first screen

Apple describe the start of this chapter also called immediately start, the iOS program should start when the user wants to use them immediately, without delay, should try to avoid rendering “on” or “splash” page, apple’s advice is to use a picture as startup and application the first screen, so that we can shorten the start-up time of feeling. In other words, it only uses a picture to make the user feel that the App has been started, but as long as the startup time is short enough, when the user really wants to do something, the main page has been loaded, so that the user can not perceive the startup time.

A good Splash page is no Splash page

What you need is to optimize application startup time, try to get home page the start control in around 200 ms, this time the user application is difficult to perceive at startup, so are the benefits of the user to open your App can have direct access to the feeling, the function of get what they want, rather than to enjoy 3 seconds every time you open the picture. In addition, we can not only see the feelings of wechat classic pictures, but also notice that wechat will not appear Splash page when opening wechat again without killing the process (Android back button will not kill the process).

Users’ time is becoming more and more important, so users can spend their time on valuable things to reduce their waiting time. Users open the App because they want functions (value), not what they have every time: 3 seconds of feelings.

Someone said that the technical department replied: what if the startup time cannot be shortened? That means you need to find a more reliable technology!