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I've noticed that almost every site, when bouncing from page to page, takes a user to a blank white page while the content loads. Obviously that has to do with HTML loading thus showing them a blank white "void", however, isn't that a usability issue? Doesn't this break the immersive aspect of browsing a site? Why doesn't a site allow a more playful or less abrupt solution when users are going from page to page within the site itself?

What are the down falls of having the pages loading with javascript/jQuery dynamically so that immersion isn't broken? The only downfall I can think of (and I'm possibly wrong since I'm not a developer) is hindering analytics from tracking the user's movement.

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  • I'm not sure what you mean by 'almost every site' here. Every site is different. Also, if you have a lot of content to pull in then it's going to take a while to load it up - regardless of whether you're refreshing whole pages or just pulling content in via JavaScript. Also having content update with JS has accessibility issues - screen readers need to be made aware that areas of the page have been updated (ARIA regions etc) which is a whole different area of question. I'm not really sure what the specific question is here overall, it's a bit broad. Do you have an actual situation in mind?
    – JonW ♦
    Oct 29, 2013 at 16:35
  • I was more curious as to why this was a standard now, when we could be thinking of more intuitive ways of guiding a user from page to page. Just like @theDriver had talked about in his answer.
    – Majo0od
    Oct 29, 2013 at 17:27

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The white "void" is a product of the browser while it waits on the contents of a new document to load from the server. Since it's such a common pattern, I'd argue it has become a standard indicator to the user that their action of clicking a link was successful and they will soon see the document they requested. However, that experience could certainly be better.

Going the dynamic route doesn't really pose any real downfalls and is certainly a better experience than those flashes of white. Github actually does a nice job making the user feel like they're moving from document to document without ever reloading the page. They're even using the pushState method to change the URL in the browser.

Google Analytics specifically can be used to track users' actions/events throughout a dynamic site like you're describing.

Ultimately, it comes down to who your users are and how they'll be using your site that should determine the method of page load. I wouldn't let the white flash alone be the decider.

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    Good answer! Thanks for the links too. Very good :)
    – Majo0od
    Oct 29, 2013 at 17:29

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