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Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

theatlantic.com

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Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#71

Post by matte_black »

Spivak wrote: post #42
XorNot wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Travel is all about mass human psychology management anyway - why do you get a meal on flights? Because people who've eaten are more docile, on average.

I feel like this phrasing makes it sound way more dystopian than it actually is. People who are tired or hungry are quicker to snap and notice the little discomforts of the plane. It's not that they're more docile, is that they're more content because it's easier to relax.

In China I was part of a flight that got so delayed and had so many people complaining and shouting that they brought out free meals for everyone to calm them down.

Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#72

Post by dingo_bat »

Retra wrote: post #55
tomc1985 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I designed and maintain a report-generating component and my system does the same thing. (Plus it is helpful as users can tell me where in the process it failed/hung) It doesn't matter how long each message sits on the screen, as long as it changes every so often. Animated, infinite progress bars also help if you don't/can't estimate ETA

A cycling animation only tells you that your computer/UI isn't dead, it doesn't tell you that the underlying task isn't frozen.

In the loading animation of windows 98 there was a horizontal bar of moving colors. And if it stopped animating, you can be 100% sure that the computer is frozen. I wonder if we can do similar with cycling animations.

Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#73

Post by dingo_bat »

Spivak wrote: post #34
mrisoli wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading long ago about how they did something similar at an airport(Dallas IIRC). Basically, people complained about baggage claim taking too long, so they just moved the baggage claim area to the other side of the airport, so it took longer for passengers to reach it, by the time they did, their bags would already be there, so the complaints stopped.

I feel like this really isn't deception but actually solving the problem which is that passengers didn't want to stand around.

Except they had to spend the same amount of time walking. If presented as a choice I'd usually choose standing.

Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#74

Post by dingo_bat »

miketery wrote: post #20
tomc1985 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think that fake progress bars about "triple checking" your taxes would fall into that latter categorization.

Definitely, that one is bad. I don't care for you to show me what you did in an animation I just want to go to the next step. Stop wasting my time. Though I did find some steps where it made you think it was checking stuff you could actually hit continue and it would work all the same but cut the animation short. I wonder if they have focus groups and it works for the masses makes them feel happy or acfomplished, but…

> Would be nice to disable such animations.

Indeed. If you have an Android phone you can try turning off all kinds of animations from the dev options. I always do that and my phone feels so much faster.

Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#75

Post by ams6110 »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #60
diplomatpuppy wrote: post #11

I had a report in Microsoft Access that took about five minutes to run - and the users hated it. I had the application throw up a fake dialog with fake messages about "Collating data, Cross checking, Sorting" and other such nonsense. The report now took eight minutes to run because I had to abuse the "On Timer" event for it to work. The users were delighted with the improvement.

Ages ago I evaluated some reporting software. We were using Crystal Reports at the time. One thing that CR did better than the others was make pages available as they were generated. This made the software feel faster even though it was slower than one or two of the others[0] at the time. [0] Can't remember which ones exactly.

Just had a little PTSD flashback moment there at seeing the words "Crystal Reports"

Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#76

Post by supergreg »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #60
diplomatpuppy wrote: post #11

I had a report in Microsoft Access that took about five minutes to run - and the users hated it. I had the application throw up a fake dialog with fake messages about "Collating data, Cross checking, Sorting" and other such nonsense. The report now took eight minutes to run because I had to abuse the "On Timer" event for it to work. The users were delighted with the improvement.

Ages ago I evaluated some reporting software. We were using Crystal Reports at the time. One thing that CR did better than the others was make pages available as they were generated. This made the software feel faster even though it was slower than one or two of the others[0] at the time. [0] Can't remember which ones exactly.

Which is why browsers take so seriously the time to first paint despite the efforts by javascript frameworks to push it back.

Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#77

Post by dingo_bat »

viraptor wrote: post #31
brlewis wrote: post #7

This article lumps a lot of techniques together that are fundamentally different. The ones that are actual deception are not benevolent, and the ones that are benevolent are not actually deception. Deception is leading someone to believe something that isn't true. If a deliberate delay is added to a UI to make it clear to the user that actual work is being done, this is not deception. You are leading the user to beli…

> If a deliberate delay is added to a UI to make it clear to the user that actual work is being done, this is not deception. It is deception. It's less obvious in case of a program, but imagine it when you're using some service in real life. You bring in a car for repairs, the mechanic says "right, I'm doing it now", goes to the other room and starts reading a newspaper. After some deliberate delay, fixes an obvious…

I think the difference is the amount of time. In your mechanic example, I have to wait probably a few minutes extra. Maybe total time goes from 15 to 25 minutes. 10 minutes is a significant time.

When dealing with computers however, the time goes from 100ms to 2 seconds. People generally don't mind.

Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#78

Post by dingo_bat »

jakobegger wrote: post #47
so33 wrote: post #13

The NYT example is interesting. During the US presidential election I interpreted the needle’s fluctuations (on what was a simulation of an analog gauge–a skeuomorphism) to indicate some form of uncertainty in the data. This would not be deceptive (at least according to my own mental model of how such a gauge would operate in real life). However, according to this article many interpreted the movement as the needle r…

I've never seen an analog gauge move like this. The pressure gauge on our heating doesn't do that, the speedometer on my car doesn't tremble, and neither do analog Volt meters as far as I recall.

The speedometer on your car is almost certainly a digital system driving a needle. Unless you have a 40 year old car or something. So you shouldn't expect that to indicate how analog meters work.

Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#79

Post by RhodesianHunter »

simcop2387 wrote: post #50
52-6F-62 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of the loading screen for The Sims (an obvious parody of the above mentioned tactic) (You might want to mute it. The loading messages are at the bottom) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpMiI2QooKQ

Reticulating splines actually comes from SimCity 2000 and they then used the idea in The Sims later http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Reticulating_splines

Oh, interesting. I thought it came from Don't Starve but they must have been adopting this from SimCity.

Re: Why some apps use fake progress bars (2017)

#80

Post by eurticket »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #48
chocolatebunny wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"reticulating splines" I guess the lesson to be learnt here is that people are more understanding if you appear to be transparent but you don't have to ACTUALLY be transparent to get the affect.

Reminds me of the loading screen for The Sims (an obvious parody of the above mentioned tactic) (You might want to mute it. The loading messages are at the bottom) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpMiI2QooKQ

"Doing things you don't want to know about"
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