[IxDA Discuss] the appearance of change

[Jim Drew]

On Jan 2, 2008, at 5:08 PM, pauric wrote:

> Progress bars shouldnt really refill unless its a staged install or
> something similar like the xp bootup screens.
>
> If the underlying functionality is not able to provide the
> presentation layer with a finite completion estimate then I provide
> an 'hourglass'.  Really good example of this is the browser page
> loading animation.


I don't disagree, although I think users were long ago trained that a  
working hourglass and a hung/looping hourglass (or "spinning beachball  
of death") are indistinguishable.  An hourglass that stays up for more  
than about 5 seconds increases the feeling that the app is dead every  
second thereafter.

A place where an hourglass works fine, though, is where something is  
loading and the user can see the new items fill in as they wait.

An hourglass is a degenerate version of a refilling meter pattern,  
isn't it?

-- Jim Drew
     cfmdesigns at earthlink.net