On Tue, 5 Apr 2005, Kirk Bridger wrote: > Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 21:21:16 -0700 > From: Kirk Bridger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [email protected] > 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 _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
