I highly disagree that the animations are superfluous for the vast majority of users. Yes, they
can be superfluous, but that's not by their nature of existing.
History shows us that consumers value good UX, of which animation is a key component. The iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, but it was the fist one to take UX as seriously as the hardware.
As for the examples:
- Slack: Yes, it takes forever to load and I hate that, the real problem is performance, not the animation. Would it be better if no animation happened and didn't inform the user about about what's going on? Keep in mind that the animation also serves to inform the user that it hasn't "frozen", so a still interstitial would be a regression.
- Spaces: The animation tells the user what is going on! Having the entire screen change instantly would be confusing for the vast majority of users.
I do value choice though, so perhaps there should be a setting for power users to disable/minimize them.
History shows us that consumers value good UX, of which animation is a key component. The iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, but it was the fist one to take UX as seriously as the hardware.
As for the examples:
- Slack: Yes, it takes forever to load and I hate that, the real problem is performance, not the animation. Would it be better if no animation happened and didn't inform the user about about what's going on? Keep in mind that the animation also serves to inform the user that it hasn't "frozen", so a still interstitial would be a regression.
- Spaces: The animation tells the user what is going on! Having the entire screen change instantly would be confusing for the vast majority of users.
I do value choice though, so perhaps there should be a setting for power users to disable/minimize them.