On a click, show a stub or not?

Question

Consider a click event that would cause a significant change of view (e.g. going from a list of items to a detail view of a single item). What is a better experience:

1. Switch to a stub view which shows only a spinner while the data is being retrieved
2. Show a spinner in the current view until the data is retrieved and then show the new view

Answer 1

IMO the first gives the best overall impression of UI responsiveness and understanding of the user's intent, (e.g., I've reconfigured the screen in anticipation to display the data you've requested). The second option could potentially be interpreted as something less favorable like Please wait while I figure out what exactly it is you want me to do.

In most cases, I prefer to go as far as possible with the UI and then wait.