Why are people making fake progress bars?

[Lean L]

They are everywhere now. Websites, apps, even powerpoints. It's really annoying. If the progress doesn't actually show progress, just stick with a rotating circle.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: iamanidiot
They are everywhere now. Websites, apps, even powerpoints. It's really annoying. If the progress doesn't actually show progress, just stick with a rotating circle.

Yup, I wish MS did that.

 

[Dumac]

OH I know what you mean. I was thinking about this the other day. It really does annoy me to some extent.

Even windows does it, kind of..

EDIT: Like this! This doesn't tell us the progress! It just tell us the computer is processing.

They should replace these with a "thinking" icon, like a circle as mentioned.

 

[drum]

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[irishScott]

Probably for the same reason spammers actually make money. Stupid people is morans.

 

[OCGuy]

But how will we know how far along a task is?

 

[Dumac]

Originally posted by: OCguy
But how will we know how far along a task is?

by using a real progress bar

 

[Sumguy]

Originally posted by: drum
Text

Error: Failure to apply lotion to skin once retrieved from basket.

Please wait while Windows gets the hose...

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: Dumac

Originally posted by: OCguy
But how will we know how far along a task is?

by using a real progress bar

My response to your post is 25% complete.

 

[Lean L]

Ever been redirected to a download site that has a progress bar animation with "connecting to server", "logging in", "retrieveing download" then it redirects you to page that wants you to subscribe? That is truely adding insult to injury.

 

[Chronoshock]

In some cases it is impossible to determine the true processing time due to dynamic variables outside of the programs control. That is why a "real" progress bar cannot be shown.
The natural second question is why show a progress bar at all? Studies (academic studies in the HCI field) have shown that a progress bar, real or not, contributes to a user's feeling of control and gives a sense of feedback, increasing overall satisfaction. While you may not like it, it has an overall positive effect on user experience.

 

[dsity]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer

Originally posted by: iamanidiot
They are everywhere now. Websites, apps, even powerpoints. It's really annoying. If the progress doesn't actually show progress, just stick with a rotating circle.

Yup, I wish MS did that.

pretty sure vista removed the hour glass for a rotating circle.

doesn't osx have a color wheel?

 

[Lean L]

Originally posted by: Chronoshock
In some cases it is impossible to determine the true processing time due to dynamic variables outside of the programs control. That is why a "real" progress bar cannot be shown.
The natural second question is why show a progress bar at all? Studies (academic studies in the HCI field) have shown that a progress bar, real or not, contributes to a user's feeling of control and gives a sense of feedback, increasing overall satisfaction. While you may not like it, it has an overall positive effect on user experience.

That's still a real progress bar though. I mean the bars that are there solely to show off the animation. These bars do nothing but waste time.

 

[Jeff7]

I especially love the progress bars that'll go backwards from time to time.

Also useless: Progress bars that zip by at light speed, indicating the progress of every single file in an installation, but with no indication anywhere of how far along the entire process is.

 

[Lean L]

Also, fake bars don't increase overall satisfaction because I know that my time was just wasted just to make me feel as if something was loading when nothing was loading.

 

[EKKC]

how about bars that keep resetting back to zero for the next batch process (esp ones without a secondary "total" progress bar) that really annoys me.

 

[FeuerFrei]

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[olds]

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[olds]

Originally posted by: FeuerFrei
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[Evadman]

Originally posted by: FeuerFrei
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=rept("|",83)

By the way, that works great for in-cell graphs in excel.

 

[Saint Nick]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer

Originally posted by: iamanidiot
They are everywhere now. Websites, apps, even powerpoints. It's really annoying. If the progress doesn't actually show progress, just stick with a rotating circle.

Yup, I wish MS did that.

MS did do that...they're called Windows and Office.