Pavlov's Bitch

I was recently beta-testing a friend's new site DevGrow which on one page had a checkbox labeled "Monitor Topic". After clicking it (and, being from the good ol' web days with no version number), I then faithfully searched the surrounding area and then the entire page for a "perform this action" button -- and never found it. Frustrated, I looked back up at the checkbox which now read "Monitoring Topic".

Yello?? Im in ur website bein lawst.

My original point of this post (sadly, not devgrow or basecamp) was Google: have you noticed when using GMail that clicking "Select [All | None | etc]" button that the (un)checking of your messages is wicked fast? I feel like I did something -- just by clicking a checkbox! Talk about positive reinforcement!

They might have realized (an acted on the fact that) this 'check-all' action is an important operation to the user and thus might have decided to speed up this action.

All that to say -- anticipating and responding to those parts of your website can provide the user with a pleasant (and let's not forget reinforcing) experience -- especially in the case of DHTML.

So here's to yellow or blue or whatever frickin' COLOR FADES; and to OBVIOUSLY different text changes; and to ICON changes; and to ANY changes BEFORE the async response. Because my life is very non-async. err. in sync. synchronized.

I smell you on my hand for days
I can't wash away your scent
If I'm a dog then you're a bitch
I guess you're as real as me
Maybe I can't live with that
Maybe I need fantasy
A life of chasing butterfly
-- Weezer - Butterfly