[BNM] 99% of progress bars are useless

[Oliver Marshall]

Depends how they do their calcuations.

Some people will look at the number of tasks to load during that period,
and assign each a value.

So, says theres 5 "modules" to load during loading. You divide 100% by 5
giving you 20% per module. As each module reports back as loaded, the
progress bar goes up by 20%. If one module takes 10 secs, and the next
takes 2 hours, you get a very mid-representative display.

If, however, you calculate, before you start, the amount of data that
needs loading, and then increase the progress bar as the data is loaded,
then the progress bar responds more evenly.

There are whole sites and chapters of books dedicated to the best way of
representing loading times, though most people ignore them.

-----Original Message-----
From: The Dirty Ninja [mailto:dirtyninja at gmail.com] 
Sent: 23 May 2006 11:23
To: Brighton New Media
Subject: Re: [BNM] 99% of progress bars are useless

Hello there,

Have to agree - especially the bars that race to 100% then sit there
doing
nothing wasting valuable kettle boiling time etc.

(long time listener - first time caller)

On 23/05/06, delarge <delargerock at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I spend a lot of time gazing at progress bars... and it struck me the
> other
> day...
>
> The point of a progress bar is to show distance and time, right? How
long
> it
> is taking to get from point A (nothing loaded) to B (fully loaded).
>
> So, the moment a progress bar stops or pauses or does something
resembling
> this:
> http://www.napyfab.com/ajax-indicators/images/progressbar_green.gif
> ...it becomes an loading indicator, not a progress bar
>
> For example if I'm installing a new app and the installation stops on
62%
> for a while - the concept of going from point A to B is rendered
> useless...
> unless it tells me how long it will take to install that part then I
am
> left
> guessing... the fact an install has paused on 62% is really irrelevent
- I
> want to know how far off 100% it is. It could sit on 62% for the next
5
> mins.
>
> Therefore I decree - 99% of progress bars are useless...
>
> OR
>
> 99% of progress bars are not progress bars.
>
> (99% because a small swf file down a fast connection can 'progress
bar'
> well)
>
> --
> Paul Burgess
>
> http://delarge.co.uk
> http://streetstickers.co.uk
> http://iampaulburgess.co.uk
> --
>
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