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After using PayPal for years, this thought has only just came into my head. Why does PayPal display a screen, when logging in, that says:

Logging you in securely.

Please wait 5 seconds, and if the page does not redirect, please click here.

I understand that decryption and validation of the password can be slow, which it is suppose to be a slow process. For all of the logins which I use they are instantly redirects you as soon as you press the login button.

Is there a specific reason of showing this page to the customers? I believe it will cause slight confusion myself.

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  • I don't think it does anymore. At least, it doesn't for me.
    – Brendon Boshell
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 9:50
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    I think that some old browsers have a technical difficulty with handling some async calls. Paypal may have it because of willing to capture more marketshare as a payment system.
    – Abektes
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 10:11

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Quoting from Nielsen's 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design:

Visibility of system status The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

Back before browsers could handle async calls these 'status' screens essentially told the user to chill out and wait while the password got decrypted and validated so that users wouldn't refresh the page or click away.

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