Preloader Design Tips and Inspirations

Waiting is the action of staying where something that does not happen on time. In our daily lives, we often are exposed to experience some situations that obligate us to wait such as being on the traffic during rush hour, after ordering food and so on. No doubt that it sucks. And annoying 😒

Like in daily life situations, people get bored when they wait for a website while it is loading. When people want to reach content it should be loaded fast and served well.

We are frequently supposed to wait even on the internet mostly because of weak internet connection, bad website server processing, or a high number of instant visitors.

However, this doesn’t mean that it always has to be that much boring and annoying.

There are some possible and practical ways to make the waiting process more bearable and even funnier. Using a well-designed preloader is the key solution.

Nowadays, unless a website takes less than 4 seconds to load, people tend to leave the page. This is exactly why UX designers are spending their time to create genuine preloaders.

What is “Preloader”?

Basically, preloaders or loaders are what you first see on the page when the rest of the site’s content didn’t load yet. Preloaders are mostly animated simple illustrations, they are created in order to entertain visitors while the server keeps processing.

They are important user interface elements that should not be overlooked in the development process.

Why Should We Use Preloader?

Loading time is very crucial for your website’s success. You need to keep your users engaged for those milliseconds, if you want them to retain, you have to take preloaders into consideration more seriously.

How to Design “Not Annoying” Preloaders?

People are aware that they need to wait to see your content. The important thing is how you handle the waiting process. One way to deal with this process is to use loading spinners or default loading icons. I am sorry but this is not a good way to entertain your visitors.

Loading spinners remind people not only they are waiting to see the content, but also that there might be a systemic problem and they think that they might wait forever.

Moreover, default loading icons are also used in operating systems, and they are known for operational tasks, network problems and to show the status of device boot. In order to keep visitors out of these undesirable thoughts, you should give them something more.

Use Attractive Animations Rather Than Spinners

Using attractive animations instead of loading spinners is the first part to keep your visitors. Unlike ordinary, default loading icons, you can choose colorful and interesting loading animation.

Inform People about How Long Will It Take

The second part is to inform people how long they may need to wait. Using just animated loading icons is not adequate, visitors would want to know how much time they need to wait to see the content or your product.

Give Them The Actual Reason

Additionally, the last but not least part is giving them a possible reason why they are waiting for. Even a simple explanation such as “Please wait while we set things up for you” might be enough for the user to wait for your content.

Besides, animated loading icons give you a chance to create brand awareness, and may help your brand to be well understood by visitors. You may direct users to the intended brand character via animations. They will see the colors you picked, you can use a cute mascot, and these details may help you retain visitors.