A progress indicator is an element of a
command-line interface, a
textual user interface, or a
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inst ...
that is intended to inform the user that an operation is in progress, to reassure that the system is not hung or waiting for user input,
and often to provide the user with an estimate of how far through a task the system has progressed.
Examples of progress indicators
* A
, a typically horizontal bar which is gradually filled with a color as the process completes.
* A
throbber
A throbber, also known as a loading icon, is an animated graphical control element used to show that a computer program is performing an action in the background (such as downloading content, conducting intensive calculations or communicating w ...
, an image in a program's interface which animates to show that the software is busy.
* A
splash screen
A splash screen is a graphical control element consisting of a window containing an image, a logo, and the current version of the software. A splash screen can appear while a game or program is launching. A splash page is an introduction page on a ...
, covering all or most of the computer screen while a program is loading.
* Turning the
mouse pointer into an hourglass or a
spinning pinwheel
The spinning pinwheel is a type of throbber or variation of the mouse pointer used in Apple's macOS to indicate that an application is busy.
Officially, the ''macOS Human Interface Guidelines'' refers to it as the spinning wait cursor, but it ...
to indicate to the user that they should not click anything until the active process is complete.
* A simple textual
percentage figure, common in
CLI CLI may refer to:
Computing
* Call Level Interface, an SQL database management API
* Command-line interface, of a computer program
* Command-line interpreter or command language interpreter; see List of command-line interpreters
* CLI (x86 instruc ...
applications.
References
*
Further reading
* — the
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
Human Interface Guidelines for progress indicators
*
*
* — how to create a progress indicator in the status bar of an application using
MFC
{{Graphical control elements
User interface techniques
Graphical user interface elements