All about preloader - Part I: What is a preloader?
…(a preloader) consists of a quickly-loaded smaller movie, image or text with a message that tells the viewer to wait while the rest of the larger object is loaded. - Wikipedia
According to the definition, a preloader should be a small message that indicates a large object is loading. A good preloader follows the definition closely, small, quick load and informative. A simple looping animation works, pure text works and a line in the stage is pretty neat too.
A common mistake is called “preloading the preloader”, which means that the preloader makes up the majority of the file size and it is too big to be loaded quickly. It may sound silly but you do spot it from time to time. Unfortunately, there isn’t an exact figure to measure whether the preloader is too big or not. It’s up to the designer or developer’s judgment.
Fortunately, preloader is getting less and less important nowadays. One reason is because bandwidth is getting bigger so the preloading time is much shorter. But more importantly, people realized more time should be spent in developing the content rather than a stunning preloader.
Shang :: Apr.05.2008 :: beginner, best practice :: 2 Comments »
I agree with you, that the preloader should be small in size,
I myself, have come across situations where a designer would like to enhance the preloader, by adding something that helps improve the messaging of the website,
often we have to compromise on what will be displayed, during the preloading phase.
Designers and Art Directors, will always want to provide the best overall experience possible, but it is times like these, that trade offs must be made.
The problem of course is coming to an agreement about what is the “acceptable” tradeoff, as well as what is would provide the “best” overall experiance.
On the point of the preloader getting less important, I disagree on that point
I agree with you that higher bandwidth, allows microsites to load faster, but I also notice the fact, microsites increase in file size and richness with the bandwidth as well, which in turn make the preloading “longer” =P.
As long as we keep trying to give the best possible experiance within a reasonable waiting time, then I think the sight of the preloader is here to stay.
Another reason, comes from the best argument, I have heard from an Art Director, regarding putting additional content into the preloader.
His point was that a preloader is often the very first thing you see on a website, as such it should help to sell whatever the Microsite is trying to say.
As its value is akin to the front page headline of a newspaper.
I have to agree with him on that point and in that context. and as you can guess, I had a long an interesting discussion with him before we came to an agreement for that project.
I think that no one is against adding content that enhances the experiance or messaging of a website, the problem arises, when you trade off too much for too little.
If the additional content has a strong messaging element, I would try to engage the Creative to see if a compromise can be made.
But if the preloaders additional size, is increased beyond what is reasonable like in your case, loading of a preloader, just to make it more beautiful,
then I would strongly argue against it, as the increased filesize would drag down the experiance of the website. without adding an equal or greater value to the experiance/messaging of the website.
Yes, I agree with you that it’s all about reaching a balance of being not boring and not delaying the real content either.