A near ubiquitous feature of user interfaces is feedback on task completion or progress indicators such as the graphical bar that grows as more of the task is completed. The presumed benefit is that users will be more likely to complete the task if they see they are making progress but it is also possible that feedback indicating slow progress may sometimes discourage users from completing the task. This paper describes two experiments that evaluate the impact of progress indicators on the completion of on-line questionnaires. In the first experiment, progress was displayed at different speeds throughout the questionnaire. If the early feedback indicated slow progress, abandonment rates were higher and users' subjective experience more negative than if the early feedback indicated faster progress. In the second experiment, intermittent feedback seemed to minimize the costs of discouraging feedback while preserving the benefits of encouraging feedback. Overall, the results suggest that when progress seems to outpace users' expectations, feedback can improve their experience though not necessarily their completion rates; when progress seems to lag behind what users expect, feedback degrades their experience and lowers completion rates.

中文翻译：

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进度指标对任务完成的影响。

用户界面几乎无处不在的功能是对任务完成或进度指示器的反馈，例如随着更多任务完成而增长的图形条。假定的好处是，如果用户看到他们正在取得进展，他们将更有可能完成任务，但也有可能表明进展缓慢的反馈有时可能会阻止用户完成任务。本文描述了两个评估进度指标对完成在线问卷的影响的实验。在第一个实验中，在整个调查问卷中，进度以不同的速度显示。如果早期反馈表明进展缓慢，则放弃率较高，用户的主观体验比早期反馈表明进展较快时更负面。在第二个实验中，间歇性反馈似乎最大限度地减少了阻止反馈的成本，同时保留了鼓励反馈的好处。总体而言，结果表明，当进度似乎超出用户的预期时，反馈可以改善他们的体验，但不一定是完成率；当进度似乎落后于用户的期望时，反馈会降低他们的体验并降低完成率。