They cause me to defect. I used to use CNN.com every morning to check stock futures. But the skeleton loading screen takes an incredibly variable amount of time. Sometimes, it’s just a second, but often it’s longer. I don’t feel like sitting there waiting to find out so I switched to CNBC.com, which doesn’t seem to have that problem.
I am not a UI designer, but I don't know why content loads without changing the layout and then has a gentle animation to expand to the appropriate size.
the sudden shift is jarring, especially if the content is staggered
