What happened to proper progress bars?

A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the left to the right throughout the installation or whatever you're waiting for. Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to the left and right repeatedly giving no information, ones which have a sparkle which slides along it (to give the impression it's moving when it isn't?) No use whatsoever.

On 6/14/19 3:12 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
A progress bar used to be quite simple.Â* It would move from the left to
the right throughout the installation or whatever you're waiting for.
Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to the left and right
repeatedly giving no information, ones which have a sparkle which slides
along it (to give the impression it's moving when it isn't?)Â* No use
whatsoever.

It guess not all the departments @ Microsoft got the memo huh!

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 20:23:37 +0100, Big Al wrote:

On 6/14/19 3:12 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the left to
the right throughout the installation or whatever you're waiting for.
Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to the left and right
repeatedly giving no information, ones which have a sparkle which slides
along it (to give the impression it's moving when it isn't?) No use
whatsoever.

It guess not all the departments @ Microsoft got the memo huh!

I think some departments have nothing to do so invent stuff to add, making things worse.

In article , Commander Kinsey
wrote:

A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the left to the
right throughout the installation or whatever you're waiting for. Now we get
all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to the left and right repeatedly giving
no information, ones which have a sparkle which slides along it (to give the
impression it's moving when it isn't?) No use whatsoever.

it depends if it's determinate or indeterminate.

"Commander Kinsey" wrote:

A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the
left to the right throughout the installation or whatever you're
waiting for. Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to
the left and right repeatedly giving no information, ones which
have a sparkle which slides along it (to give the impression it's
moving when it isn't?) No use whatsoever.

Did you post about this before, very recently?
Progress bars have always been hit and miss. Some time frames cannot be
easily calculated.

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:13:10 +0100, John Doe wrote:

"Commander Kinsey" wrote:

A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the
left to the right throughout the installation or whatever you're
waiting for. Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to
the left and right repeatedly giving no information, ones which
have a sparkle which slides along it (to give the impression it's
moving when it isn't?) No use whatsoever.

Did you post about this before, very recently?

Not that I'm aware of.

Progress bars have always been hit and miss. Some time frames cannot be
easily calculated.

A lot can, but aren't. Take the program "EaseUs backup" when doing a disk clone. It analyzes the disk and discovers two partitions, one is 100MB, the other is 1TB. It shows 50% after completing the first partition. Gross stupidity.

Anyway, that's not what I'm complaining about. A progress bar should move gradually from left to right. But some just slide back and forth (AVG install for example). And what's the point of this glittery effect they mostly have now? Even though the bar is stuck at say 75%, there's a bright shimmer moving all the way along that 75% to the right. Is that supposed to encourage the bored user to make him think it's really moving?

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:57:09 +0100, "Commander Kinsey"
wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:13:10 +0100, John Doe wrote:

"Commander Kinsey" wrote:

A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the
left to the right throughout the installation or whatever you're
waiting for. Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to
the left and right repeatedly giving no information, ones which
have a sparkle which slides along it (to give the impression it's
moving when it isn't?) No use whatsoever.

Did you post about this before, very recently?

Not that I'm aware of.

Progress bars have always been hit and miss. Some time frames cannot be
easily calculated.

A lot can, but aren't. Take the program "EaseUs backup" when doing a disk clone. It analyzes the disk and discovers two partitions, one is 100MB, the other is 1TB. It shows 50% after completing the first partition. Gross stupidity.

Anyway, that's not what I'm complaining about. A progress bar should move gradually from left to right. But some just slide back and forth (AVG install for example). And what's the point of this glittery effect they mostly have now? Even though the bar is stuck at say 75%, there's a bright shimmer moving all the way along that 75% to the right. Is that supposed to encourage the bored user to make him think it's really moving?

Its to encourage the bored user to be aware that the program has not
actually stopped.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 23:22:26 +0100, Eric Stevens wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:57:09 +0100, "Commander Kinsey"
wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:13:10 +0100, John Doe wrote:

"Commander Kinsey" wrote:

A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the
left to the right throughout the installation or whatever you're
waiting for. Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to
the left and right repeatedly giving no information, ones which
have a sparkle which slides along it (to give the impression it's
moving when it isn't?) No use whatsoever.

Did you post about this before, very recently?

Not that I'm aware of.

Progress bars have always been hit and miss. Some time frames cannot be
easily calculated.

A lot can, but aren't. Take the program "EaseUs backup" when doing a disk clone. It analyzes the disk and discovers two partitions, one is 100MB, the other is 1TB. It shows 50% after completing the first partition. Gross stupidity.

Anyway, that's not what I'm complaining about. A progress bar should move gradually from left to right. But some just slide back and forth (AVG install for example). And what's the point of this glittery effect they mostly have now? Even though the bar is stuck at say 75%, there's a bright shimmer moving all the way along that 75% to the right. Is that supposed to encourage the bored user to make him think it's really moving?

Its to encourage the bored user to be aware that the program has not
actually stopped.

That would be inaccurate. It can still display the silly sparkly thing even though it's crashed.

In article , Eric Stevens
wrote:


Its to encourage the bored user to be aware that the program has not
actually stopped.

for an indeterminate progress bar, there's no way to know if the
underlying process has crashed or not, other than it taking an
unusually long time...

in fact, i had that happen just the other day with 1903.

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 23:47:52 +0100, "Commander Kinsey"
wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 23:22:26 +0100, Eric Stevens wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:57:09 +0100, "Commander Kinsey"
wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:13:10 +0100, John Doe wrote:

"Commander Kinsey" wrote:

A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the
left to the right throughout the installation or whatever you're
waiting for. Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to
the left and right repeatedly giving no information, ones which
have a sparkle which slides along it (to give the impression it's
moving when it isn't?) No use whatsoever.

Did you post about this before, very recently?

Not that I'm aware of.

Progress bars have always been hit and miss. Some time frames cannot be
easily calculated.

A lot can, but aren't. Take the program "EaseUs backup" when doing a disk clone. It analyzes the disk and discovers two partitions, one is 100MB, the other is 1TB. It shows 50% after completing the first partition. Gross stupidity.

Anyway, that's not what I'm complaining about. A progress bar should move gradually from left to right. But some just slide back and forth (AVG install for example). And what's the point of this glittery effect they mostly have now? Even though the bar is stuck at say 75%, there's a bright shimmer moving all the way along that 75% to the right. Is that supposed to encourage the bored user to make him think it's really moving?

Its to encourage the bored user to be aware that the program has not
actually stopped.

That would be inaccurate. It can still display the silly sparkly thing even though it's crashed.

People do silly things. :-(
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 18:50:17 -0400, nospam
wrote:

In article , Eric Stevens
wrote:


Its to encourage the bored user to be aware that the program has not
actually stopped.

for an indeterminate progress bar, there's no way to know if the
underlying process has crashed or not, other than it taking an
unusually long time...

in fact, i had that happen just the other day with 1903.

As it happened I installed 1903 just yesterday and remember those
progress bars (I think). I did not rely on the twinkling to tell me it
was still working but watched the 'performance' tab of Task Manager.

4.5 hours, several reboots and the need for me make a decision part
way through the installation. (Do it now or wait until the next time
you shut down?).
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 20:30:48 +0100, "Commander Kinsey"
wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 20:23:37 +0100, Big Al wrote:

On 6/14/19 3:12 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the left to
the right throughout the installation or whatever you're waiting for.
Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to the left and right
repeatedly giving no information, ones which have a sparkle which slides
along it (to give the impression it's moving when it isn't?) No use
whatsoever.

It guess not all the departments @ Microsoft got the memo huh!

I think some departments have nothing to do so invent stuff to add, making things worse.

I think MS is basically a hype and marketing company, that they design
some software is incidental to their real mission of increasing
profits and buying/stifling competition. Appearance is more important
than substance.

On Sat, 15 Jun 2019 12:12:26 +0100, default wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 20:30:48 +0100, "Commander Kinsey"
wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 20:23:37 +0100, Big Al wrote:

On 6/14/19 3:12 PM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
A progress bar used to be quite simple. It would move from the left to
the right throughout the installation or whatever you're waiting for.
Now we get all sorts of rubbish, ones that move to the left and right
repeatedly giving no information, ones which have a sparkle which slides
along it (to give the impression it's moving when it isn't?) No use
whatsoever.

It guess not all the departments @ Microsoft got the memo huh!

I think some departments have nothing to do so invent stuff to add, making things worse.

I think MS is basically a hype and marketing company, that they design
some software is incidental to their real mission of increasing
profits and buying/stifling competition. Appearance is more important
than substance.

They used to design things properly, each version of Windows showed distinct improvements. Remember back in the days when you had to get the next version of Windows to support a larger hard disk? Mind you that shows lack of foresight. Forget it, I take my point back.

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:57:09 +0100, Commander Kinsey wrote:

Anyway, that's not what I'm complaining about. A progress bar
should move gradually from left to right. But some just slide
back and forth (AVG install for example). And what's the point
of this glittery effect they mostly have now? Even though the
bar is stuck at say 75%, there's a bright shimmer moving all the
way along that 75% to the right. Is that supposed to encourage
the bored user to make him think it's really moving?

It's to re-assure users that something is actually happening under
the hood. Overcomes the tendency of clueless users to assume a
machine crash when there is no movement on the progress bar for 30
secs.

On Sat, 15 Jun 2019 12:22:46 +0100, mechanic wrote:

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 22:57:09 +0100, Commander Kinsey wrote:

Anyway, that's not what I'm complaining about. A progress bar
should move gradually from left to right. But some just slide
back and forth (AVG install for example). And what's the point
of this glittery effect they mostly have now? Even though the
bar is stuck at say 75%, there's a bright shimmer moving all the
way along that 75% to the right. Is that supposed to encourage
the bored user to make him think it's really moving?

It's to re-assure users that something is actually happening under
the hood. Overcomes the tendency of clueless users to assume a
machine crash when there is no movement on the progress bar for 30
secs.

If the whole machine has crashed, the mouse is inoperative.

If the program you're installing etc has crashed, the progress bar keeps sparkling anyway, so actually it's lying to the user that progress is being made when it's actually stuck.