Scholars Mind

Beyond the Progress Bar

Bars are not the only way to pass time. Explore the following alternatives to the standard progress bar, then discuss with your team: what are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?

  • indeterminate progress bar | splash screen | console output | skeleton screen | throbber

A true progress bar has to know how far along you are — but many waits can't be predicted. So designers reach for tools that say 'I'm working' without claiming 'I'm nearly done'.

Key concepts

Determinate Versus Indeterminate
A determinate indicator knows its own end and can show a real percentage; an indeterminate one only knows that work is happening. Forcing a fake percentage onto an unpredictable task is exactly what produces the maddening bar stuck at 99 percent.

+ 1 more concept inside

Every work — at a glance

  • Throbber (interface element)

    The minimal spinning wheel or pulsing dots that say only 'something is happening' — the most honest and least informative signal there is.

+ 4 more works explained inside

What to know

  1. 01
    What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? They all buy patience with one currency — a visible sign of life — and they trade on a single axis: honesty against comfort. A console log tells the truth and comforts no one; a splash screen comforts and can mask a failure. Which one fits depends entirely on whether the system can predict the time, and the one unforgivable choice is showing nothing, because a frozen blank reads as 'broken' and that is when people quit.

Across subjects

Painters knew the labor illusion centuries early. Visible brushwork, and the pentimenti where an artist changed their mind, are part of why an original beats a

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

The question is hardest when the system doesn't know the answer. A designer then chooses between the unsettling truth and a reassurance that may hide a problem. One side says comfort — a calm skeleton screen beats an honest frozen log. The other says honesty — masking a stall leaves people waiting on a dead process.

Practice — a sample

SOCAn indeterminate bar keeps sliding although nothing at all is running behind it. That display is MOST like —

  • A Tesla's bodysuit robot reveal
  • B The Mechanical Turk
  • C Amazon's Just Walk Out
  • D Tesla's teleoperated Optimus demo
  • E The iPhone M68 prototype

Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.

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