Re: [Usability] Progress Bars

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 5 Apr 2005, Kirk Bridger wrote:

> Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 21:21:16 -0700
> From: Kirk Bridger <kbridger shaw ca>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] Progress Bars
>
> I'm thinking of at least one situation where a single progress bar would
> not be sufficient - when the user needs to know at which point along the
> way something failed during a series of actions.
>
> For example, in Sound-Juicer, while ripping a series of songs, I want to
> be able to see the progress of each song.  This way, if there is a
> failure (or a slowdown due to copy protection schemes) I can see exactly
> where along the series of steps the failure occurred.

I like how the Safari Web Browser from Apple uses the whole of the
location bar to show progress, making use of the existing window rather
than popping a dialog.

I like how Microsoft Office overloads the statusbar to show loading
progress of large documents.  The status bar isn't being used for anything
else at loading time anyway.

I like how downloader programs show progress of mulitple downloads by
putting a progress bar beside each item in the list.  I think this is
quite different from the original case of a dialog with two progress bars
and is much clearer.

I suppose in an ideal situation I would like to see sound juicer
incorporate the progress of ripping each track into the main view, either
by adding another column to show a progress widget or by using the whole
row to indicate progress.  The space occupied by the status bar could
possible be used to indicate the overall progress.

I would be very pleased if the solutions Ross has in mind incorporate any
of these ideas.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan