Progress Bars: The Tiny Cheerleaders of User Engagement

Biologically hardwired to respond to progress feedback and we see it everywhere around us. Life is a journey full of progress feedback. We see this feedback in the growth of humans, trees, and animals. We also see it in the progression time of day and night, and seasons.

In digital space progress bars and progress indicators are like tiny cheerleaders, cheering users on as they work towards their goals. They can help users stay motivated and focused, and they can also make the task at hand seem less daunting.

However, if we remove UI progress indicators or redesign them in a non-intuitive way, we risk losing those tiny cheerleaders. This can lead to reduced engagement, as users may feel lost or unmotivated. We may feel like the system is stuck or that there is nothing more to do. This can lead to frustration and abandonment.

So, next time you’re designing a digital user interface, don’t forget to include progress bars and progress indicators. They may just be the difference between a user completing a task and giving up.

What do I mean by progress bar?

Progress bar is visual indicator of heath progress, time progress, impact progress, skill progress, in game currency inventory progress, game level progress.

Examples of Progress bars

The psychology behind progress indicators

• The need for feedback. Humans have a natural need for feedback. Progress indicators provide a way to give users a sense of how far along they are in a task. This can help to reduce uncertainty and anxiety.
• The goal gradient effect. As people get closer to a reward, they speed up their behavior to get to their goal faster.
• The Zeigarnik effect. People are more likely to remember unfinished tasks than completed tasks. This means that progress indicators can help to keep users engaged in a task by reminding them of what they still need to do.

Progress bars give users a sense of control and help them make strategic decisions about whether to continue working towards their goal or exit the task, saving remaining resources and time.

Examples of application of above learning in projects we designed

Here are 2 examples of how simple use of progress indication can increase engagement even for children.

The “Playground” feature in the Disney BYJU’S Early Learn App saw a 15% increase in tasks started after the addition of progress bars.

Before UI UX Fix

Problems The blue line in the bottom was the progress of the building “Shelter and Ecosystem.” It violated Gestalt’s law of proximity. Users could not deduce the relation so the progress bar was ineffective

Before UI UX Fix

After UI UX Fix

Improved visual grouping of progress bar building and title “Measure & Represent” and the building

Increase in Tasks starts +15%

After UI UX fix

Problems The blue line in the bottom was progress of the building Shelter and exosystem

It violated Gestalts law of proximity

Users could not deduce the relation so progress bar was ineffective

After UI UX Fix

Improved visual grouping of progress bar building and title and the building

The study plan feature in the Disney BYJU’S Early Learn App has the highest long-term stickiness, with 80% of users continuing to use it after a period of 6 months. This is compared to other features in the app, which have a long-term stickiness of only 54%.

PDF study plan on whatsapp/email

In app study plan with multilevel progress

Problems

User journey: Open PDF Know the topic ➡️ Search topic in library and complete ➡️ go to progress report to check the overall progress 🔁repeat

Psychological Phenomenon

The delay in progress feedback is too long, the cognitive dissonance may dissipate and users may be less likely to remember the task or be motivated to complete it. This is because the dissonance will no longer be salient and users will no longer be motivated to do it.

Improved by making study plan actionable and giving feedback at topic level and week level and month level.

Instant feedback build better association of action consequence. Children as early as Grade 1 mentioned how they understand what is remaining to be completed.

What is the ideal balance between too much and too little detail in progress feedback?

The most effective level of detail in progress feedback for increasing user engagement depends on how much is needed and can be comfortably consumed by the user. Too much detail in progress reporting can increase cognitive load and reduce engagement with the feature.

Here are two examples of features where I could achieve success by showing more progress in different ways:

1. Farmville1 mini game breaks all records: Revenues soar 240% by showing daily and monthly acreage progress to users, which achieved record revenue and increased engagement.

Farmville1 mini game breaks all records: Revenues Soar 240%

Typical one progress bar

Detailed multiple progress bar

Just one unified progress bar for entire 30+ days of mini game

Daily progres bar + Over all progress bar

Users felt more empowered to make choices and take action

We conducted multiple user tests with a simpler progress bar for monthly goal progress. To our surprise, this was the winning variant, even though it looked visually cluttered. Players of the Farmville game found this more engaging and helpful in devising their strategy.

Sense of control led to surprising increasing day on day retention

The sense of control that users felt when they saw the progress UI led to a surprising increase in day-on-day retention. The UI clearly showed that the difficulty would reset to the lowest level every day, which gave players of all skill levels a chance to win the best rewards. This motivated players to return to the game every day, even if they had missed out on the best rewards the previous day.

Dividing the daily progress bar into three levels makes each level feel more achievable because it creates a sense of progress. This is based on the goal gradient effect, which states that we are more motivated to achieve a goal when we are close to achieving it.

Daily Active User graph of New Mini game performance compared to previous mini games with same game play

Green:

New Mini game DAU

“Grape Escape”

Orrange:

Previous mini game

“RPS Daily”

Blue:

Previous mini game

“Santa Daily”

The Regret Factor: How Missing Opportunities Can Motivate Us to Try Harder

When we miss an opportunity, we may feel regretful that we didn’t take action. This regret can motivate us to try harder next time, in order to avoid feeling that same regret again. For example, easy-level completionists may try to complete medium-level challenges, and medium-level completionists may try to complete hard-level challenges. Hard-level completionists, on the other hand, may spend most of their time completing hard-level on every day.

Increase task completion across all 3 difficulty levels

Easy Levels

Task completion

Medium Level

Task completion

Hard Level

Task completion

The players were so eager to reach the next difficulty level that they were willing to spend money to speed up or ease up some of the tasks. This resulted in a 240% increase in revenue, and surprisingly, no one complained that the game was exploiting them.