This is the discussion thread of the Brainstorm proposal UI wait indicator

On my trusty N800 I get all the feedback I need from the CPU meter of the load-applet-run applet. In addition networked applications show a 'loading..' message.

On windows xp, if you bring up the shutdown/logout/restart dialog and wait some 30 seconds, the background fades to black&white. I think it would be great if the UI would fade out like this under heavy load. This may be too resource consuming (it would imply repainting the desktop, and i have no idea how easy/hard that is) but it would be at the same time obvious to the user, and it would not annoy as much as a fullscreen throbber. It does not impede usage under load the way a throbber overlay would

I think it's important to have an interactive throbber that will show a task manager when "clicked". The task manager should show which applications / processes are taking up all the CPU and allow them to be killed.

Just showing a big throbber in the middle of the screen would quickly get annoying to me - unless it was only displayed when the UI had completely frozen. Even in that case I would want a quick way to recover (manually or automatically).

For interest, both Vista and recent Ubuntu will fade individual app windows if they fail to respond, which sounds like what you're suggesting.

I posted the brainstorm idea because I want it to be clear across the whole system that the CPU is under heavy load and that's why the UI isn't "working". Fading the app causing the problem isn't good enough; it may be hidden in the background.

I agree that the throbber isn't ideal, but I couldn't think of something better.

A "Brainstorm" is supposed to be about people throwing out all sorts of ideas, so keep 'em coming!

How would you show to a user that they need to be patient for a minute, no matter what app they were in?

Can someone explain this throbber to me? I haven't a clue what you're talking about.

The little spinny thing that goes around and around when an app is waiting for something to happen. I thought something like that, but big and transparent, over the whole UI, so that the user is aware that there are "responsiveness issues", so they don't just keep whacking away at all the buttons on the screen wondering why things aren't working.

I hate that for one main reason. If the system goes unresponsive when I'm trying to read something off my screen, I won't be able to do it.

when something like that happens can't we do something like a shortcut key to bring up processes of running apps so with one click can diminish them. Or like on the desktop a bubble window appear saying "App Skype is unresponsive end now or wait" type event to occur?