
Give the User Update Information
Status Information
When an action may take more than two or three seconds, you need to give the user some kind of update information. This status information will usually take the form of a slip indicating what is happening (see FIGURE 1.8).

FIGURE 1.8 : A status slip that updates the user on what is happening.
Another way to give the user information is to invert a view, icon, or button when it is tapped upon, and keep it that way until the action is completed. This tells the user that something is occurring and to be patient for a moment. Do not rely upon this for things that take longer than about 4 seconds, however.
Without this status information, users get confused and assume nothing is happening. They will frequently tap items again, thereby exacerbating the problem. The end result in such cases will be frustrated users who hold your application responsible.
An online version of Programming for the Newton using Macintosh, 2nd ed. ©1996, 1994, Julie McKeehan and Neil Rhodes.
Last modified: 1 DEC 1996