3 ms·
Several people [1][2] are saying they think of the progress bar as bring about how much of the work (bytes downloaded, milestones completed) is done. It doesn'
by cbr 15y ago
Several people [1][2] are saying they think of the progress bar as bring about how much of the work (bytes downloaded, milestones completed) is done. It doesn't matter how you interpret the bar: what matters is what your users will think, and most people see the bar as indicating time.
[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3641046 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3641046
[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3641036 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3641036
- alttag 15y agoI agree ... mostly. One of the examples was bytes downloaded. The reason I, and I suspect other users, interpret that as % downloaded is that in most interfaces (e.g., iTunes, Firefox, Safari), below the download progress bar, it says "XK of YK". (There is also an estimated time remaining, but it's typically not on the left side.) In other cases (installs), yes it makes sense that the simplest interpretation is time, because that's what we care about when installing: how long until we can use the new shiny widget.