Sunday, January 15, 2006
Loading... Updating... Perpetually... - Google Blogoscoped Forum - blog.outer-court.com/forum/16871.html
Loading... Updating... Perpetually... - Google Blogoscoped Forum
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FORUM
Loading... Updating... Perpetually...
Saturday, January 14, 2006
9 hours ago
The busses in my city all have GPS
transponders that report their position back to nextbus.com. As part
of their service, NextBus provides our bus stops with scrolling
digital marquee signs that update asynchronously, showing predicted
times for the busses next arrival at that stop. Unfortunately, these
signs almost never work. They are perpetually "Updating...". In fact,
they are Updating... even when it is clear that something is wrong and
they are broken. But we are given no indication of this, and thusly
the signs are practicaly worthless.
I have also found this unfortunate usability disaster with another
asynchronous technology: Google Reader. Frequently I will open Google
Reader and it will be "Loading..." for minutes on end. In fact,
forever. It becomes frustratingly obvious that something is wrong
with the service, but instead of a useful message, I am mislead into
believing that I should continue waiting and being patient.
This is a blatant perceptual lie. The service is not in fact
"Loading..." or "Updating...". It is Broken... But rather than admit
the fact by providing a useful error message, these services would
rather save face and claim that they are in fact doing something
useful for the customer.
I feel I've spent more than enough time Waiting... for things
that are Loading... and Updating... to realize that they are in fact,
not.
The ability to create an asynchronous, event-driven interface, if
anything, gives the service provider more responsibility and more
reasons for giving the user more information. I think most people
understand that when an hour glass on their computer turns for
several minutes on end, there is a good chance that the software has
a bug in it.
8 hours ago
I totally agree. Really.
There's nothing more frustration than having a word with three
dots behind it telling you to stay alert.
Updating this text... ;)
6 hours ago
Yes, I'm also perplexed by the
Google Reader error messages. When it says "loading" all you need to
do is click the refresh button and everything will be fine 99% of the
time.
The same goes for when you see the red error messages "whoops! an
error occurred." Click refresh and it's almost always fine.
5 hours ago
Brain, which city ??
4 hours ago
I agree that it's annoying,
but it's pervaded the internet pretty deeply; it's not just
google. firefox for instance does that in its tab names.
Full name:
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auto-linked. )
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Please contact .
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* * * *
FORUM
Loading... Updating... Perpetually...
Saturday, January 14, 2006
9 hours ago
The busses in my city all have GPS
transponders that report their position back to nextbus.com. As part
of their service, NextBus provides our bus stops with scrolling
digital marquee signs that update asynchronously, showing predicted
times for the busses next arrival at that stop. Unfortunately, these
signs almost never work. They are perpetually "Updating...". In fact,
they are Updating... even when it is clear that something is wrong and
they are broken. But we are given no indication of this, and thusly
the signs are practicaly worthless.
I have also found this unfortunate usability disaster with another
asynchronous technology: Google Reader. Frequently I will open Google
Reader and it will be "Loading..." for minutes on end. In fact,
forever. It becomes frustratingly obvious that something is wrong
with the service, but instead of a useful message, I am mislead into
believing that I should continue waiting and being patient.
This is a blatant perceptual lie. The service is not in fact
"Loading..." or "Updating...". It is Broken... But rather than admit
the fact by providing a useful error message, these services would
rather save face and claim that they are in fact doing something
useful for the customer.
I feel I've spent more than enough time Waiting... for things
that are Loading... and Updating... to realize that they are in fact,
not.
The ability to create an asynchronous, event-driven interface, if
anything, gives the service provider more responsibility and more
reasons for giving the user more information. I think most people
understand that when an hour glass on their computer turns for
several minutes on end, there is a good chance that the software has
a bug in it.
8 hours ago
I totally agree. Really.
There's nothing more frustration than having a word with three
dots behind it telling you to stay alert.
Updating this text... ;)
6 hours ago
Yes, I'm also perplexed by the
Google Reader error messages. When it says "loading" all you need to
do is click the refresh button and everything will be fine 99% of the
time.
The same goes for when you see the red error messages "whoops! an
error occurred." Click refresh and it's almost always fine.
5 hours ago
Brain, which city ??
4 hours ago
I agree that it's annoying,
but it's pervaded the internet pretty deeply; it's not just
google. firefox for instance does that in its tab names.
Full name:
(URLs are
auto-linked. )
| | Want to advertise here?
Please contact .
(c) 2003-2006 by . Not affiliated with Google(tm). See the for
more.
or your news tips.
Elsewhere:
Want to advertise here? Please contact .
