

"Loading..." Animated GIF Generator - nir
http://ajaxload.info/

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joshuarr
I prefer <http://preloaders.net/>

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nir
Nice! That one seems to have more features than the site I submitted. I had no
idea there's this whole niche of loader GIF generators...

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aw3c2
There is one really annoying thing about those loading graphics: When people
do not provide a <noscript> that does not show them. Also they are useless as
progress indicators. Countless times I looked at them while there was nothing
happening (be it a non-responding server or a simple bug).

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abentspoon
Has anything like this been done for other site graphics?

It would be great to be able to customize fg/bg colors of rounded border
images or background gradients without firing up photoshop. It would be even
nicer if it could scrape the colors out of your site's css.

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palsecam
Rounded corners generator: <http://wigflip.com/cornershop/>. You may also like
the other wigflip utilities, see <http://wigflip.com/>.

Background gradients (if you make a 1-pixel wide button) and button generator:
<http://dabuttonfactory.com/> (self-plug).

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nir
Just found this, thought it might be come handy for other devs as well..

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lsb
If you can avoid showing that loading icon altogether, take it out. Precache
the AJAX request as soon as you can, if it won't overload your server, and
don't make the user wait.

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noodle
alternatively, <http://www.loadinfo.net/> also has a wide, but somewhat
different selection of types of spinners.

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techiferous
I've used ajaxload.info's handiwork on my <http://patiencepractice.com>
website.

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fretlessjazz
That site is SO 2007.

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rmp
Hacker News is SO 2007.

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makecheck
Of course, the goal should be to eliminate all sources of slowdown from one's
web page.

I especially hate seeing progress indicators for things that "used to" be
fast, if only they weren't ajaxified. The classic case being the pop-up image
browsers, because it's so much more fun to watch a spinning icon than to
actually see my images instantly.

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joshuarr
If you're loading an image that's 100k+ you want a preloader on there so
people know what's going on.

It's not going to magically appear instantly because you've compressed the
image to shit and removed the preloader.

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makecheck
I specifically mentioned images that really were displaying _instantly_ ,
prior to fancy UI. In other words, the page did not require the fancy UI, but
one was added because someone thought it would be cool. And the result was a
less optimal experience.

Web site maintainers should be keenly interested in what their visitors think.
But apparently, honesty only loses me points.

