Using Loaders in your website

What is a Loader?

A loader is a visual element placed in a website to notify users that there is an active task going on in the background, It could be retrieving data, loading images, verifying transactions and much more.

The main aim of the loader is to make the user aware that an operation is being carried out . In other words, loaders play a really great role in improving users experience.

What should loaders look like?

While it’s important to use loaders in websites, It’s also necessary to style the loader in accordance to the content of the page, here is a list of what I believe to be the key things to look out for when adding loaders to your website.

1. Simplicity: Loaders should have a clean and simple design. Avoid overly complex animations or graphics that might distract or confuse users. A straightforward and easily recognizable loader is more effective in conveying the loading process.

2. Consistency: Maintain a consistent design language with the overall aesthetics of your website. This ensures that the loader seamlessly integrates into the user interface, creating a cohesive and professional look.

3. Relevance: Consider the context of your website and choose a loader that is thematically relevant. For example, if your website has a tech theme, a loader with a subtle tech-related animation might be appropriate. This helps maintain a sense of coherence in your design.

4. Visibility: Ensure that the loader is easily visible against the background of your website. Choose colors that contrast well with your site’s color scheme to make the loader easily noticeable, even on different backgrounds.

5. Responsiveness: Make sure the loader is responsive and adjusts to different screen sizes and devices. It should look good and perform well on both desktop and mobile platforms.

6. Accessibility: Consider accessibility features, such as making sure the loader is visible to users with visual impairments. Providing alternative text or other accessible features ensures that all users can understand and interact with the loading indicator.

Getting a loader

You can get a loader either by writing the code yourself with the use of CSS animation or by using codes of other people that has been shared on a public platform, I’ll advise coding it yourself if you have something particular in mind but if you just want a general loader the latter will suffice. Personally, I’ll recommend uiverse for free beautiful loaders.

Adding the loader to your website

Before implementing a loader put into consideration how long the loader would last, you might want it to load till a specific action is carried out or have a specific time you would like it to load for, For instance, when submitting a form for a user, you won’t like the loader to stop until the form has been sent either successfully or not, but when working with a loader to introduce users to your webpage you would have a specific time in mind mostly between 3–5 seconds.

The way loaders would be implemented would be due to a state change, that’s why we had to put into consideration the duration of the loader.

import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";
function usingLoaders() {
  const [loading, SetLoader] = useState(true);
  useEffect(() => {
    setTimeout(() => {
      SetLoader(false);
    }, 3000);
  });

  return <>{loading ? <div>Loader code...</div> : <div>Actual Content</div>}</>;
}

export default usingLoaders;

In the above code, we created a state “loading” which value was set as true, then in the useEffect() there was a timeout set with an interval of 3 seconds or 3000 milliseconds, within the timeout the value of the state (loading) was changed to false and in the return statement we rendered the loader code while the loading state is set to true and the actual content of the page when it’s set to false.

NOTE: The loader is set to false within the timeout giving us 3 seconds before our actual content is displayed.

Now for loaders which don’t have a specific duration, the best approach is to change the state after the action you are waiting for.

For instance:

import React, { useState } from "react";
function usingLoaders() {
  const [loading, SetLoader] = useState("");
  const loader = <div class="spinner"></div>;
  const HandleSubmit = () => {
    SetLoader(loader);
    //The code to handle the form details...
    SetLoader("");
  };

  return (
    <>
      <form onSubmit={HandleSubmit}>
        <input type="email" placeholder="Email" />
        <input type="password" placeholder="Password" />
        <button type="submit">Login {loading}</button>
      </form>
    </>
  );
}
export default usingLoaders;

In the above code, we created a state to hold the loader but it’s initially set to an empty string, then we proceeded to saved the loader in a variable, followed by a simple login form, next to the submit button of our form is the loaders state, which is currently set to an empty string. When the form is submitted the HandleSubmit function runs which changes our state to an active loader, followed by the logic to handle the form- like sending the details to a server for verification, while this is going on, the state of the loader is active, after finalizing the logic, either resulting to a positive or negative result, the state is set back to an empty string.

We just achieved using a loader while a process is going on 🔥

Wrap Up

In conclusion, loaders are essential on websites as they make the users keep up with actions being carried out at a particular time and in general it increases users experience on your website.

It’s advisable to visit public platforms such as uiverse for loaders, so as to save yourself time but if you have something specific in mind feel free to code it out with the use of animations in CSS.

Furthermore, when working with loaders which you have a specific duration for make use of the inbuilt JavaScript function setTimeout() and add the interval just as demonstrated above.

NOTE: The interval is measured in milliseconds (ms) and 1 second is a thousand millisecond hence 3000ms is equivalent to 3 seconds , 5000ms to 5 seconds and so on.

Lastly, when working with loaders that are based on actions or events within the code, you can easily change the state before or / and after depending on what you plan on achieving.

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