Consider an app, where there's a function (perhaps a button, or, when you hit return to send some text, for example).
It results in a network connection, and there will be a small delay while the connectivity happens.
During the delay there will be a spinner (or some other indicator) showing that the network connection "is happening"...
... indeed that indicator shows you that something "actually happened".
Now regarding that spinner appearing during the network connection: these days it is often pretty much instantaneous, you barely see the spinner or perhaps don't even see it.
Thought: in fact deliberately make a minimum time for the spinner to appear (say, 1/3 second). That is to say, even if the connection is near-instantaneous, add a "fake delay" (perhaps 1/3 second).
In this way, as it says above, the user definitively knows something happened.
Good idea? Bad idea? Already in use?
- drastically simplified the question here
Answer
My 2 Cents:
From a developer Point-of-view it is "plain stupid",
But as a business decision, it is "Genius!".
Consider this hypothetical situation:
You go to a fortune teller,
Ask: "when will i die?"
It instantly answers: "5th, June 2049"
No crystal ball, no humming, anything...
? what would you think ?
Example of an instance of intentional delay:
I know one commercial product (which I written) which introduced fake delay, even as long as 5[sec]. and i will explain:
The product I was writing came as an Engineering Tool built as an add-on for a well-known diagramming software used widely across the industry,
But it was vast and added much functionality that is "could" live on it's own...
when you start the add-on, you barely could see you are out of diagramming software and into my product: The design was following the same schema & the loading time was somewhat instantaneous.
Our team wanted to make sure the user knows where is "our contribution" to his work, and not the "parent" software!
So... We introduced "The Splash Screen":
Which was nice, containing the Name of the product, the company name and the product version.
But... The Splash-Screen was popping very briefly, so we introduced a delay on the Splash-Screen, a perfect progress-bar, and later on, some tips on using the tool.
Note on your implementation:
Either way, I suggest that you first execute the operation, and only then (if needed) introduce the delay... and not vice-versa, further more, if the operation fails, give the delay up and let the user know right away.
Note2:
Instead of a Modal Note stating "operation was completed successfully! [OK]".
you can use a alert-frame like G-Mail's "email sent successfully! [X - dismiss]".
But of course, every case has it's own considerations.
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