Understanding progress and usability
Imagine that you have a microwave oven that has no window and makes no sound. The only way to interact with it is by pressing a button labeled “cook.” As absurd as this device sounds, it’s what many software users face: no indication of progress. Is the microwave cooking anything? If so, how do we know when it will be done?
One way to improve the microwave situation is to add a beep sound. This way, the user gets feedback after pressing the cook button. You’ve overcome one hurdle, but the user is still left asking, “When will my food be ready?” Before you go out of business, you had better add some sort of progress measurement display, such as a timer.
It’s not that UI programmers don’t understand the basic principles of this usability concern; it’s just that they have stuff to do, and this sort of thing simply slips through the cracks in terms of priority. In React Native,...
