How many seconds need to pass before a 'loading bar' is warranted? [closed]

Question

Hello wonderful programmers of the world!

Forgive me in advance if you feel this is too subjective.

I'm building an app for the iPhone. At a certain point the user hits a button to process some data during which there is no animated feedback. Just the buttons disable and one button changes it's name to 'Processing data'. After about 5 or 6 seconds pass the buttons are enabled and life goes on.

Do you think I need some animation during this 'processing period?' Is there a rule of thumb about this? What would you say is the threshold for needing to include a 'loading bar' in your program? 5 seconds? 8 seconds? 2 seconds?

Thanks

Answer 1

Any action that doesn't give immediate, or almost immediate feedback is likely to cause the user to think that their iPhone, or worse, your application has frozen. Now, the fact that you have your button change to 'processing data' is good - That should mitigate most of that negative reaction, but I would add a simple animation just so your user feels like something is actually going on.