I like this idea, Alex! The principle is the same — give the eyes something to look at and occupy the brain so we are now creating “occupied time” versus simply waiting. The one thing I do wonder with any of these techniques is when it simply becomes hum-drum. That is, after opening the app the 100th time, are we really still occupying the user’s time? Or does it become repetitive, boring the user and now putting us back at square one? But even if that is the case, we are, at the very least, providing feedback that the system is working and are doing it in a much more creative way than simply using a spinning circle.

Nice article and a great add to the discussion of managing wait times in systems!