Splash screen: Encyclopedia II - Splash screen - Purpose

Splash screen - Purpose

Splash screens are typically used by especially large applications to notify the user that the program is in the process of loading. In other words, they provide feedback that a sometimes lengthy process is under way. A splash screen disappears when the application's main window appears.

Splash screens typically serve to enhance the look and feel of an application or web-page, and hence are often visually appealing, and may also have animations, graphics and sound. However, since they may sometimes take a long time to load, they are not universally liked by users. They are especially inconvenient for users with slow internet connections as the pages take longer time to load.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Purpose", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki