Progress Indicators are Important for Motivation
February 14, 2021•126 words
Reading time: 1 min
I was watching a recording of a lecture which I chose to not attend.
The video progress bar happened to be broken. The bar doesn't move towards completion even though I was playing and digesting a good chunk of the lecture recording.
Earlier on in the video, I got a wave of discouragement thinking that I spent so much time for so little progress, not noticing this issue.
Just past halfway through the video, I finally noticed that the progress bar was broken, indicating that only 15% of the video was complete, rather than the true percentage of 51%.
This demonstrates the importance of progress indicators in offering motivation. They are short-term, immediate indicators that you are progressing towards a long-term goal.