Progress bar

摘要

Some embodiments relate to providing an improved progress indicator in a graphical user interface. In addition to conveying a completion status of a task to a user, an improved progress indicator in some embodiments can convey additional information about the task to the user. For example, some embodiments can display a visual cue when a triviality threshold indicating that the task is "substantially complete" is met. An improved progress bar can convey a completion status of a task to a user in a manner that properly manages the expectations of the user. A browser application can overestimate a time to load a web page and thereby cause a completion status indicator in a progress bar to increment at a slower rate. The rate at which the completion status indicator increments can be adjusted as the browser application updates its estimation of the remaining load time. By underreporting the completion status of the task (i.e., loading the web page), the chances of the completion status indicator stalling towards the end of the progress bar are minimized, thereby allowing the user's expectations of completion of the task to be properly managed. In addition to conveying a completion status of a task to a user, a progress bar can display a visual indication that the task is substantially complete (e.g., essential elements of a web page are loaded) followed by another visual indication that informs the user that a particular feature or functionality has been enabled. For example, in addition to displaying a visual cue (e.g., a rocket effect) when a triviality threshold indicating that the task is complete to a threshold degree, another indicator can be displayed in response to determining that a status of a feature has been modified. Determining that the status of the feature is modified when the triviality threshold is met and thus displaying the other visual indicator immediately following the visual indication produces a dramatic visual cue in directing the user's attention to the visual enablement of the feature. In addition to conveying a completion status of a task to a user, an improved progress bar can convey additional information about the task to the user. For example, some embodiments can present a type of animation in the progress bar conveying a rate at which the task is being completed. A different type of animation can represent performance of a task at a different rate. For example, a different animation may be displayed when a web page is loading at 5 Mb/s as opposed to when the web page is loading at .5 Gb/s. Further, in some embodiments, different types of animation can represent different types of tasks.