By Tim Kadlec CHAPTER 4The result is that by the time the user submits the form with their ac-
count information, recommendations are presented nearly instantly.
Instagram uses the same trick on image uploads. After you select the
filter for your image, you are able to choose options such as where to share
the image, or to geotag it with a location. All the while, Instagram is already
uploading the image in the background to reduce the time users have to
wait at the end of the process.
Worth noting is that in both of the cases above, there’s a very high like-
lihood that the person will end up moving forward to those next pages. It’s
a slippery slope between moving bits while no one is watching and using
up everyone’s bandwidth and data for pages they may never view and as-
sets they may never need. But if there is a high likelihood that your visitor
will end up needing these assets at some point, it makes sense to do a little
precaching to stay a step ahead.
beyond Technical
These are all things that are not necessarily obvious, nor are they strict-
ly technical solutions. They require careful consideration about the user
experience and a solid understanding of how users interact with an app.
They also require a little bit of elbow grease, but the end result is well
worth it. Luke Wroblewski (one of the brains behind Polar)^33 explained it
well:
If making temporary versions of polls fully functional and using multiple
background processes to make sure uploads are successful sounds like a lot of
extra effort to make things feel fast—it is. But the end result is worth it, when
people create something on Polar it seems instantaneous. And in this case,
perception beats reality.