A few years ago, a co-worker approached me with a suggestion for the software user documentation.
“You should document that thing,” he said, pointing to the upper-left hand corner of our software’s graphical user interface, where an animated line of dots moves when the program is performing any action other than crash. “That way, users will know how to tell if the program is still working or if it is frozen.”
“Good idea,” I agreed, whisking out a sticky pad to write myself a to-do note to document that, um, thing. “What is that thing called, anyway?”
The co-worker paused. “I don’t know, it’s just the, uh–”
“The loader?” I ventured. “The loading indicator?”
“Not very user-friendly. How about the moving dots?” the co-worker suggested. He paused. “The magical moving dots.”
Later, I found out on Wikipedia that loading indicators are called “throbbers” by GUI and widget geeks, so I dutifully dotted the documentation with tips about the throbber.
And if I ever needed confirmation that people are really reading the documentation, the widespread adaptation of the term “throbber” within the user community is a good indication. There’s no way anyone would know what to call that thing if not for me. Some people might smirk when they hear someone complain that “My throbber’s not moving. It’s totally frozen” or “My throbber’s been going for at least 5 minutes.” But me, I smile. I throb with pride.
