Feedback, subjective time estimates, and user satisfaction

This experiment investigates the effects of three types of feedback, static, dynamic and cumulative progress, designed to keep the user apprised while a computer completes a transaction. Using a simulated online movie store, participants chose movies for various audiences and then were required to wait 15 or 30 seconds for the computer to process their order. Participants perceived the transactions using the dynamic feedback indicators and cumulative progress bars to be more reasonable than transactions using the static feedback display, even though the transaction times were identical. However, there was no difference in the perception of processing time reasonableness between the dynamic display and the cumulative progress indicator. Despite this, cumulative progress bars were preferred to both dynamic and static feedback indicators.