Does always showing a skeleton screen actually help the user experience

The skeleton screen, commonly used in loading situations, is a useful tool for informing users of progress. However, according to guidelines from the Nielsen Norman Group, using repetitive animations for short tasks under 1 second can actually distract users and increase anxiety instead.

When the response time is extremely short, as with KakaoPay's notice API, a skeleton that appears and disappears in an instant gives a negative impression of a screen that stutters or feels broken. This creates a paradoxical situation where users end up with a worse experience.

To solve this, an optimization approach using React Suspense and DeferredComponent is proposed. The idea is to wait for a certain period of time (e.g., 200ms) after loading starts without showing the skeleton, and only display the skeleton if the loading continues beyond that point.

Applying this approach, fast responses like 100ms transition naturally without a skeleton, while longer responses like 1000ms show the skeleton at an appropriate moment, maintaining a pleasant UX.