Progress messages - user experience

Question

When displaying progress bars do you display generic messages, such as:

• "Working"
• "Loading"
• "In Progress"

Or is the additional coding effort worth the user experience improvements resulting from more granular messages, such as

• "Loading Case 2 of 5"
• "Loading Teams"
• "Saving POL10283"

ALso, If you code granular messages, do you control these from teh objects to which they pertain, or to a wider view / module into which the objects are loading?

Mark

Answer 1

If it is a task that you do not know the length of (No counts or loops to count) then a generic message or info ion the specific step is fine, but I do tend to try the percentage completed or "Case 2 of 5".

This gives a better indication of the actual task being performed.

Answer 2

It makes a significant improvement in usability if you message gives the user an idea of how much time left until the task if finished.

So something like "Processing item 2 of 5" is definitely better than just "Processing".

I also recommend to avoid progress bars than run up until then end then simply start again and again and again. That's only for teasing users. It feels like: "It'll be done in a minute. Well, maybe in one more minute. In a minute more".

Answer 3

The feedback you get from the second option can be invaluable in tracking down unforseen bugs. In terms of which option to choose I would go for the second as it enables me to give the wider view a seperate thread. So, if the objects fail loading at least I have a general purpose mechanism to react to the problem.

Answer 4

Evaluating the "worth" is pretty difficult. Speaking as a user, I really like to know what's happening. Hence I tend to try to implement such detail.

I would decouple View from the actual processing detail (which may involve objects that the View really shouldn't know about) and use a kind of NoticeBoard in my model. Interesting events can be posted there, and the view can pick them up.