Currently preparing a machine for re-use by a new staff member who'll be starting tomorrow, I'm thus stuck uninstalling a bunch of no-longer-needed software (and will shortly be installing some more software). This means that I'm once again faced with progress bars.
On the whole, they're a great idea - they give some idea of how long something is going to take. However, a lot of companies - Microsoft being a big one - seem to be unable to use them properly.
A progress bar should fill up throughout the process - starting completely empty, and ending up full just as the process is completed. Microsoft (and others), however, take various non-intuitive approaches which ruin the entire point of the progress bar:
All of these abnormal behaviours add only confusion to the system - not information, as a properly-used progress bar should - and, in my opinion, should be avoided unless there's a very good reason.
On the whole, they're a great idea - they give some idea of how long something is going to take. However, a lot of companies - Microsoft being a big one - seem to be unable to use them properly.
A progress bar should fill up throughout the process - starting completely empty, and ending up full just as the process is completed. Microsoft (and others), however, take various non-intuitive approaches which ruin the entire point of the progress bar:
- Progress bar fills up completely long before the process is complete - often with a message along the lines of "Time remaining: 0 seconds"
- Progress bar does not fill up, but rather has a small bar which scrolls along and back repeatedly (or just scrolls one way repeatedly)
- Progress bar fills up - then starts all over again for another sub-process, perhaps with a message indicating that it's now doing some other sub-process
- I have nothing against this, so long as there's also an overall progress bar - which there generally isn't
All of these abnormal behaviours add only confusion to the system - not information, as a properly-used progress bar should - and, in my opinion, should be avoided unless there's a very good reason.
Comment by David,
Sunday 13th of January 2008 05:02:45 AM
[Reply]
Have to really agree with you on this one. I think progress bars are just dummy mechanisms to sate the masses, but will little basis in the real time a process will take.
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