Re: [Usability] Progress Bars

[Age Bosma <agebosma home nl>]

Matthew Thomas wrote:
> Age Bosma wrote:
>
> > ...
> > I'm wondering, since it's not mentioned in the HIG, what would be the 
> > preferred way of displaying two progress bars? One for the total 
> > progress and one for the progress of individual tasks in one dialog.
>
>
> My recommendation would be: don't. Use a progress bar only to show 
> progress of an overall task, not progress of individual components. 
> Having multiple progress bars, or making a progress bar repeatedly empty 
> and fill for the same overall task, both encourage subconscious mistrust 
> of progress bars in general.
>
> If you need to show more fine-grained progress for individual components 
> (such as progress for individual files), use text -- one line to name 
> the component, the next to give the progress of that component. For 
> example:

You've got a point though some programs do tend to use multiple progress 
bars. Should this be something to address in the HIG with e.g. one or 
two examples to prevent people from using multiple progress bars?
Would it be possible to recommend this in general in the first place? 
Personally I can't think of a reason why multiple progress bars are 
realy needed if you use your example but others might think of situation 
where it would be handy to use.

Age