Long Process - Do you know that you should provide a detailed summary, play a sound and hide the progress bar at the end?
Whenever a long process is churning away (e.g. about 10 seconds) users will usually do something else, either make a coffee or switch to another window.
Your application should remind the user to go back and check on it by:
- Playing a sound
- Hiding the progress bar
- Showing a message box at the end of the long process
See rule on Do you know how to make long-running processes user-friendly?
When using Message Box to indicate user a process is done, always includes detailed summary of the process. Don't just say "Process completed."
Process completed.
❌ Figure: Bad example – No detailed information
This is just like standing at a set of traffic lights listening for the beep to know when to walk, rather than constantly looking at the red and green lights.
Process completed. Time Taken: 15 seconds
✅ Figure: OK Example - A completed progress form
100% Manual extraction process completed.
Mailboxes scanned: 8 Mailboxes skipped: 2 Total mailboxes: 10 Time Taken: 10 minutes, 15 seconds
✅ Figure: Good example – The user can see what has been processed