Challenge: to do something like this in a revlet #2

[Richmond Mathewson]

Richard Gaskin wrote:
> Richmond wrote:
>
>> http://www.ovomaltineforever.com.br/
>>
>> Cripes, I am getting cheesed-off with the
>> ubiquitous Flash.
>
> I don't mind Flash, but splash pages went out with 2002 and that one 
> runs waaaay too long even by 20th century standards.
>
> Jared Spool of UIE offers a simple recipe for evaluating the 
> usefulness of things like intro pages:
> <http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/0103/0136.html>
>
> :)
>
> We use splash screens in desktop apps only because the app needs time 
> to initialize and we need to give the user something attractive to 
> look at until it's ready for work.
>
> I've seen some apps actually delay their boot time so they can display 
> their splash screen longer.  I don't quite understand that; the user 
> didn't boot the app to look at a splash screen, and users don't go to 
> the Ovaltine web site to look at colored blobs dancing around.
>
> -- 
>  
I eventually got round to reading Jared Spool's stuff about Splash pages;
it puts things on the spot very effectively.

NOW:

All the programs I build have a Title Page, with:

1. Title.

2. Decorative Element (not too much 'in the face').

3. GET STARTED button.

4. QUIT button.

For kids I have been known to throw in an animated GIF just
to grab their attention (when, let's face it, they are about to
do some fairly boring exercise where Richmond hammers
home some grammatical point).

I do NOT like programs that launch straight into their main
interface that do not easily slot into the known categories
of application (e.g. Word-processing, image manipulation,
audio-manipulation) because there has to be a place to
display any Copyright (or Copyleft) information and anything
else end-users should know without taking a 'bite' out of
the main interface.

The reason I dislike splash screens is two-fold:

1. They are very often a place for programmers to show
    off visual pyrotechnics which only serve as distractions
    and cheese-off end-users.

2. Splash screens display a lack of respect to end-users
     insofar as they take control away from them.