Am I responsible for handling when a user clicks a button quickly/repeatedly?

Issue

As an Android developer, am I responsible for handling the situation where a user mashes a button quickly and repeatedly? Or is this considered user abuse? Nothing bad happens from a data standpoint on the backend.

I have a button that when selected makes a server call. Once the server responds, an activity is spawned from the returned message (using the handler). In some instances, if a user mashes the button repeatedly, duplicate activities can start stacking and can make for a bad user experience (i.e. user may need to hit the back button multiple times to return to a previous screen)

Edit: I left out a few details. Right now a spinner dialog is being displayed while waiting for the server response. This intercepts all clicks. The problem is that in some instances the time between dismissing the spinner and starting the new activity is long enough for users to make more clicks.

Right now I am disabling the buttons, but it seems like a bit of a hack there could be a better solution.

Solution

am I responsible for handling the situation where a user mashes a button quickly and repeatedly?

Typically yes.

Or is this considered user abuse?

The user's opinion is what matters, and the user may not consider this to be "abuse" of your app.

Once the server responds, an activity is spawned from the returned message (using the handler). I

Do not start an activity after a delay like this, particularly since the server may never respond.

In some instances, if a user mashes the button repeatedly, duplicate activities can start stacking and can make for a bad user experience (i.e. user may need to hit the back button multiple times to return to a previous screen)

So, in other words, your UI is causing the user to get frustrated. The solution is to write a better UI.

Answered By - CommonsWare