Quick Intro
The first impression is the best impression😜.
Yes, First impressions are important, you only make one of them! As humans👨👩👧👦, we make judgments on other people/Products very quickly.
Yes splash screen is present everywhere, whether it’s a teaser in a movie, A cover page of a comic book or the first few seconds when we launch a product.
Before we get into our first impression, let’s take a quick dive into the splash screen ocean of the huge product world🌍
What is a Splash screen in a product / an app?
The splash screen occurs in the first few seconds intro of launching a product or an app. It is also known as a launch screen or a startup screen. Every app takes some time to load the basic features no matter what your device or your connection speed is.
User’s perspective :
👉🏼 To get a good first impression of the app.
👉🏼 To be greeted with a very warm visual welcome.
Experience / Design perspective :
👉🏼 Strengthening brand identity and perception
👉🏼Give a positive distraction for the backend or other activities to load.
Technically why we use a splash screen, Your app need some basic details to load or it needs some authentication to be taken care of, It can be of any reasons
Yes, you may say technology is developed, Nowadays apps/Products can launch in an instant. But many apps still use splash screens to load some data before the initial setup phase load.
Any specific rules?
There is no specific rule for a splash screen, there is a certain limitation in accordance with the user behavior.
The 3-Seconds rule.
Splash screens should be quick. When users install your application, they have high expectations, so if installation takes more seconds, they tend to get frustrated. Generally, splash screens for apps will not include any main actions. It can be 1-second, 2-second, or 3-second depending on the splash screen strategy of your app.
How often should splash screens appear?
👉🏼 Make sure the splash screen appears when the user installs the app.
👉🏼 Make sure it appears when the users launch the app after killing it before
You should also consider that if the user uses the app more than once a day, try to remove the splash screen and return the screen to where the user left it or pop up any errors or issues once they are loaded it is most likely done by the operating system. Imagine that every time I launch the Facebook app or receive a Facebook notification, the splash screen appears and I have to wait 3 seconds every time 🤷♂️.
What code to use?
As a product/UX Designer🎨, your main focus will be what content you have to load in the splash screen(Happens at the backend not visible to the user). when you kind of collaborates with your engineering team, they tend to give you many options to load in the splash screen, so finally it will come up to 4 to 5 server calls so that the users will get a seamless transition in the next pre-loaded screen.
How to Make a Splash Screen?
It was a million-dollar question for me😜 when I first began my design career.
- What software should I use?
- What code should I use?
- How will I convert the video or GIF to code and hand it off to the developers?
Yes, Technology is developed, there are a lot of ways you can create an animation or motion transitions. In recent times I have come across an awesome framework and plugin
Lottie is a library for Android, iOS, Web, and Windows that parses Adobe After Effects animations exported as JSON with Bodymovin and renders them natively on mobile and on the web! Lottie was built by Airbnb team members.
There are a lot of tutorials on youtube, where they explain how to convert motion design into JSON script using body moving plugin.
You can find every single piece of information here https://airbnb.io/lottie/#/
Sharing one of the tutorials i have come across: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72qbebvwxnY&t=2017s
But make sure the splash screen is bold, elegant, and not more than 3 seconds.
Other Scenarios for splash screen
What if the Splash screen breaks the 3-seconds rule or any error happens?
This scenario may happen in real life. It can be of any scenario when the users internet connection is low or if the user uses the low-hand devices, it will take more than three seconds to load the app/data.
If the scenario is for poor internet connections or maybe your server is down or running super slow, try to load any loading animation after the splash screen so that the users will know that something is happening in the background.
If it's no internet connection for the user, Try to alert users to check their internet connection
What is the splash screen itself takes data to load?
The splash screen should be integrated into the app storage when the app is being installed for the first time. In this way, the splash screen will be visible without any limitations/restrictions.
A guide to the perfect splash screen
- Make it no more than 3 seconds⏳.
- Design it in line with the brand guidelines and make it elegant and bold. It can either be a fixed screen or a motion transition
- Load your minimum before loading the splash screen so that the transition from the splash screen to the next screen is seamless.
- When the internet connection is poor or your server is down or running super slow, make sure to load loading animations so that the user feels there is something happening.
- Store the splash screen in the app storage.
User psychology is infinite ♾, so some users will like the splash screen and others will dislike the splash screen. A splash screen’s primary purpose is to give a warm welcome to the user and to add a touch of brand recognition.
