…don’t try and pretend you do.
I am fed up with ‘progress’ bars in software that pretend to let you know what’s going on, when they really don’t have a clue. Here’s a short couple of pointers for using progress bars:
- If there is a known finite number of actions to be performed, then a progress bar is excellent
- If there is a known, even approximate, time frame, then this can be used too.
- If there are steps to be undertaken, show them, and then cross them out as they are taken.
- Do not use multiple progress bars one after the other, without displaying a list of the number of tasks that will be done
- Do not, in any circumstances, use one of these useless progress bars where the bar slides across and back (WindowsXP startup anyone? or Firefox installer?). Use something that represents a reality – a spinner, or something that says “I’m still working, but I don’t know for how long”. False hope is evil.
Here endeth the lesson.
mrBen
Microsoft Office is evil in that respect. It goes through about 5 different progress bars.
The GNOME Human Interface Guidelines (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/) actually suggest, and only provide the option of a “back and forth” progress bar, the indeterminate progress bar (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/controls-progress-bars.html#indeterminate-progress) in their progress feedback types (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/feedback-types.html). Though they are merely guidelines, I suspect many following them will stick to them, so maybe those working on them could do with the feedback
Apple’s guidelines are similar, but the standard indeterminate scrollbar is with stripey bits moving continuously (http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGControls/chapter_18_section_5.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000359-TPXREF208)
Hmm, I have to disagree with you on the bouncing progress bars. They are reassuring. Obviously if there is a choice, a more informative progress indicator is more useful, but they have their place.
resiak – the clue is in the name: Progress Bars. If they’re not indicating progress they’re useless. I’m not saying that you should have no indiciation of something happening – you definitely need that. I just think progress bars should only be shown when there is progress.
Maybe the way to do it would be to have some text saying what is happening – e.g. ‘starting MS Office’, with the background or the text twinkling to show that something is still going on and it hasn’t crashed.
I think I’m in agreement with the interface guidelines: They call the bouncing progress bars “indeterminate progress bars”. The name describes everything about them. Indeterminate – don’t know how it’s progressing; progress – nonetheless, it *is* progressing; bar – err, bar
I disagree that “indeterminate progress bars” not showing progress. They do show progress, if there wasn’t any progress, there shouldn’t even be any “busy” indication, it’s doing nothing, why is my computer sitting there doing nothing?
As it’s nice to be consistent, so I think progress indicators should be similar. The bouncing bar (or Mac OS X’s stripey bar) is different enough to the determinate progress bar movement to distinguish.
Additional graphics to indicate progress are optional, but nice to have, though I feel the progress bar should stay (determinate or indeterminate).