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Engaging loader

The wait between the last answer and the result, spent on purpose.

Decision: ⚪ idea

Design: Figma

Context

The results calculation phase - see phases model - fills the screen with a card that narrates the work instead of counting down to it. A dark animated field, a stack of short status lines, and the two result actions sitting greyed out until it is over.

The loader and its text pool

How it behaves:

  • Words instead of a percentage - lines arrive one at a time, the current one spinning, and the finished ones stay on screen so the stack grows into visible progress.
  • The lines are jokes about political life - "we count, we do not judge", "starting the third reading", "checking whether you pass the threshold", "we are in favour, and even against". The subject is the process, never the taker.
  • Drawn from a pool - the sequence is shuffled per run and never repeats a line, the same mechanic as random copy on checkpoints.
  • The destination is already on screen - download and full results are rendered disabled, so the taker sees where this ends before it ends, and nothing moves when the card resolves.
  • Continuity with the questionnaire - the header keeps saying almost, the same way the closing phases do.
  • Its length is a decision - the sequence sets the duration, not the arithmetic behind it.

Opportunity

  • The one wait people are happy to sit through - attention is at its peak between the last answer and the result, so this is the cheapest entertainment in the product.
  • A neutrality statement disguised as a joke - "we count, we do not judge" says the thing our whole credibility rests on, in a form nobody skips.
  • Room for real work - computing the result, rendering the card image and saving the session can all happen behind a wait that is already justified.
  • It grows for free - a new line is a string, so the loader gets better every time someone thinks of a good one.
  • Voice where voice is safe - humour about parliament costs nothing; humour about the taker's views would cost everything.

Risk

  • A manufactured wait is still a wait - if the calculation is quick, we are holding people back from the thing they came for, and they can feel it.
  • The jokes are untranslatable - every line is a reference to Polish political life, so another country needs a new pool written from scratch, not a translation.
  • References date and take sides - a line about a specific scandal ages into confusion, and any line read as aimed at one camp breaks the rule the product depends on.
  • Dead buttons invite tapping - showing the actions early means showing something that does not respond.
  • A comedy card is the wrong place for a failure - if a step breaks, the loader has to stop being funny and say so.