UI rendering: optimistic vs pessimistic

The popularity of AJAX has grown since its inception in 2005 because of the rich user experience that it provides. Being able to render content without having to refresh or switch pages has become a staple in UI, and something that users have come to expect. But as users demand more fluidity from their apps, as they demand their content to appear instantaneously AJAX alone has proven not to be enough. Thats because it still takes time to process requests and return content to the user. A typical user flow looks like this

• a user clicks a submit button to post content
• a call is sent to the server with the user’s post
• the server saves the user’s post and returns content upon success, or an error message in case of a failure
• the client side application renders the content or failure message

All the while when this is happening the user is waiting. Even though this wait may only be a few seconds, it has a noticeable affect on user experience. especially when you consider the fluidity that users have become accustomed to. So how can a developer provide a more instantaneous experience? The answer is to use a technique called optimistic user interface. In optimistic UI you don’t keep the user waiting for a response. instead you make the assumption that the response will succeed, and provide them with the appropriate response right away. So if a user is posting a comment, or sending a message, you render the view of the content immediately. Then if the server should response with a failure to save the record, you may re-render the content section with an error message. In optimistic ui user flow changes to

• a user clicks a submit button to post content
• client app renders user’s information
• a call is sent to the server with the user’s post
• the server saves the user’s post and returns an error message in case of a failure
• the client side application renders failure message if one is present

Optimistic rendering is not appropriate for all cases. For actions like posting a comment, or liking content; it is absolutely appropriate to use optimistic rendering, since failure to complete the action does not result in a high cost. But for certain tasks such as, a bank transfers or a submission of a tax form, it is more appropriate to use pessimistic ui when rendering a response.