It’s not a bug or a feature request, the login screen working fine for my purposes. But it’s an unusual design decision, so I thought it would be instructive to understand what went into the design.
On the login screen, if you have four users to choose, clicking one will slide all four users until the selected user is centered. To make the transition look smooth, the position follows an S curve; slow at the start, slow at the end, fastest in the middle. All of this makes sense and is common for UI/UX.
What I noticed, however, is that when you click a user on one edge of the list, while your previously selected user is on the other edge of the list, the S-curve is slower. It’s not just that it takes more overall time because it’s traveling a farther distance. It’s average speed is actually slower.
I didn’t take careful measurements, so there’s a strong possibility the max speed at the center is the same in both cases. But either way, the average speed is slower; or at least feels slower.
My best guess is this is not an intentional design decision, just an artefact of how it is programmed. My second best guess is that it was done to make it easier to cancel big changes since the transition is slow to start with. It could also be just to make selecting faraway items feel weightier.
But rather than guessing, I thought I would ask the team. Someone made it this way, and it’s not what I was expecting. Why?