Grumpy Website+

nikitonsky: Fantasy Fo... I wonder what Fo... might be? But I get it, this is a card, low on space, sometimes text gets cut. I bet if I click to see the full story I’ll know... Nope nevermind

nikitonsky: Yesterday grumpy.website/post/0T7Bxy9nU we talked why welcome sceens are bad. What’s the solution? Control center!

Thing is, welcome screens are not completely useless. They still might contain some useful links and controls. The problem is that they disappear after first use.

Well, control center is a welcome screen that does not disappear! Instead, it is always present at some convenient spot. Take Figma: control center is the first thing you see, but also, even if you open up multiple tabs and start working, it will still remain accessible. Thus, if you learn to use it, that knowledge is not wasted—you can call it up at any moment.

In case of Figma, it is also the one and only UI. This is even better, as this creates no duplication of controls and no confusion as in “what’s the one true way to open a file?”

dmitriid: Safari. Presented here without comment.

nikitonsky: I conside welcome screens antipattern. The goal is praiseworthy: help your user to do something for first time. The problem is, though, that welcome screen is an additional, duplicate interface of commands that already exist in other places. Yes, you might use it once and it might even be convenient, but after that it’s gone! You are on your own again, forced to learn real UI.

You can’t rely on welcome screen because it will disappear the first thing. Using welcome screen teaches you nothing about real UI of the app. And if you already familiar with the UI, then welcome screen is an annoying obstacle standing between you and something you already know how to do. All downsides, no upside, 0 start, do not recommend.

dmitriid: Apparently, Twitter is world's best PWA and an example of how web technologies are already on par with native technologies. One can clearly see why.