[jonahx]

This critique's central example is a straw man.

The main discussion is about interacting with a small element (such a search bar) where, the article argues, it's better to keep the ajax UI indicator closer to the point of user interaction.

While this may be true, many sites that use these loading bars (such as youtube) are using them when all (or a large portion) of the page is being entirely reloaded using ajax or pjax. So the critique given does not apply to one of the largest use cases.

[thierryrietsch]

But even when the complete page is reloaded in an ajax/pjax manner, the loading bar is out of the visibility area. If one scrolls through the recommended videos on YouTube and pick one which is in the middle or below the list, one will not directly recognize the loading bar - why not showing the status indicator in a more prominent place?

[jonahx]

Personally I think it's pretty noticeable. My eye went right to it the first time I saw it.

I suppose you could argue that they should have an overlay spinner (or something similar) across the entire page so it would be impossible to miss, but that's not as elegant.

Also, why wouldn't your reasoning apply to the url progress bar in many browsers that you see for an ordinary http page load? It's up their at the top of the page, why not put a nice unmissable transparent loading bar across the middle of the page?

[thierryrietsch]

Cool :) I missed it totally :D

But shouldn't come usability before design?

The progress bar within does work, because the user enters the address right there and at the moment where he presses enter, his eyes are still in this area, so he recognizes the progress bar immediately. A unmissable loading bar would solve the problem, as long as it is unmissable (from my point of view).

[jonahx]

> But shouldn't come usability before design?

Yes. If I saw data showing that 20% of youtube users didn't see the red bar, for example, I would agree with your point. But I have 1) my own experience showing otherwise (not worth that much) and 2) the logical argument that youtube probably did some usability tests with good results before releasing this. These 2 points are not a definitive argument, but they're enough for me to be skeptical of your critique.

> The progress bar within does work, because the user enters the address right there and at the moment where he presses enter,

But this is not the case when a user clicks a link at the bottom of the page, and a new page starts loading.

[thierryrietsch]

Being skeptical on things that get written on the internet is always a good idea ;) And I am thankful to everyone who brings constructive criticism. Unfortunately I haven't seen any information regarding research from sites that use those approach. Would be interesting to see them.

Agree on that one.