patvann/display-program-status-in-banner

The impact of progress indicators on task completion

A near ubiquitous feature of user interfaces is feedback on task completion or progress indicators such as the graphical bar that grows as more of the task is completed. The presumed benefit is that users will be more likely to complete the task if they see they are making progress but it is also possible that feedback indicating slow progress may sometimes discourage users from completing the task. This paper describes two experiments that evaluate the impact of progress indicators on the completion of on-line questionnaires.