After reading a StackoOverflow question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/182112/funny-loading-statements-to-keep-users-amused, I was really intrigued to ponder upon this question "Can humor cut down on response time?"
In a page loading lots of data, instead of just "please wait" or "loading data", can a humorous / funny / witty message cut down the perceived response time (as perceived by the user)? I guess it can take 3-5 secs off the user's count of response time.
What do Joel, Jeff, and others feel about this ?
1st time cute 2nd time ok 3rd time annoying 4th time Microsoft paper-clip hell
It's so hard to really guess what people will think...AI and HCI are deep fields, whenever experts try to guess what will be "friedlier" they seem to often make it worse.
Classic example, Douglas Adams' spaceship with the passengers locked up for hundreds of years on an abandoned planet, but the robot crew insisting they need pink napkins and eventually a civilization will arise that will provide them, etc. (I think they were pink.)