Progress indicator

Source: CUA, Motif, Windows
Alias: Working dialog (Motif)
Related: Cursor; Feedback; Response time

A progress indicator is a visual cue that notifies users that the application or the system is busy and gives a cue to the length of response time.

There are two recommended ways of implementing a progress indicator:

pointer change

change the pointer to the in-process cursor and display progress information in a status line. For example, Windows uses the hourglass to show processing.

working dialog

display a progress indicator window. For example, this dialog shows the progress of a disk backup and provides a Cancel button so users can interrupt the process: