In this particular situation, there are 9 automated steps in a process that take varying lengths of time. We currently have a number showing percentage in the center of a progress bar, but it suffers from the common stop-and-go problem of racing up to 33%, waiting a long time, racing up to 55%, waiting an even longer time, then finishing.
What’s the best way to present this to the user? Should we remove the number, remove the whole progress bar in favor of an ajax-type circle animation, add descriptive text for the nine steps and checking them off or leave it the way it is? What are your thoughts?
If it really takes a long time, AJAX type of animation is probably not a good idea. I’d go with checklist of items.