Nikita “Tonsky” Prokopov:
The rule of thumb is:
If I take a screenshot of your app at any moment, you should be
able to explain what I see.Why care about every frame? It builds trust. Users can’t see the
code, so UI is the only way for them to judge the quality of the
app. If UI looks good, that means developers had time to polish
it, which means that they probably spent a comparable amount of
time to iron out the code. It’s a heuristic, but a reasonable one.Now, what does it mean in practice? I can think of a few things:
- No white flashes between screens.
- No partially loaded content.
- No relayout while content loads.
- Internally consistent. If one part of the UI says “1 update
available”, another part should not say “Checking for
updates…”- Precise animations.
Animations often end up being forgotten. A UI might look great in
both start and end states but very janky in between.
“Every frame perfect” is a great mantra for UI craftsmanship. If you care about every frame, that discipline will be palpable, even though almost no users will ever examine your animations and transitions frame-by-frame, and most will happen too quickly to see in real time. If you cut corners on interstitial states “because no one will notice”, you’ll start cutting corners elsewhere.
