We've done the trick of "short animations for delays <1sec", and "indeterminate loader for under 10sec", but one thing that's not mention is that the "determinate loader for waits between 10sec and 1min" is a huge marketing opportunity.
This is where you get to show the value of the product by listing "how much work" is getting done. Similar to how travel sites will tell you, while you're waiting for results, how many airlines they're comparing on your behalf.
Of course as someone in computers I know that the computer can do all of the actually work faster than my screen can refresh. Even accounting for network latency, all the work is done in less than 1 second - everything else is either inefficient code, or intentional delays to make the problem seem harder than it really is. Both of them are things that anyone with computer training should object to.
Delaying a 1 sec process to show me 10 sec of ads is one of the many definitions of evil
Even Google flights takes special consideration to show loading indicators here, and I'm sure they've put a lot of resources behind making it fast.
Using load times to convey something while users wait is fair however I would bet shorter loads times always beats however good a filler, unless your business is to trap users in load times to feed them more ads of course, in which case that's a whole other problem.
For example:
> Reticulating splines
> Generating witty dialogue
> Swapping time and space
https://gist.github.com/meain/6440b706a97d2dd71574769517e7ed...
At best it makes me think the site was designed an implemented by incompetent people. Not a great look.