→ Consider transparency over elegance.
UX designers work hard to hide complexity—but sometimes showing the steps ("Rendering audio, Syncing frames, Final encoding...") builds more trust than a single mysterious bar.

Progress indicators aren't just UI. They're a promise. Make sure yours keeps it.

→ Tell me if I can walk away.
Can I close my laptop? Will this finish in the background? Don't make me guess.

The result? I assume it's broken. I contact support. That's the most expensive action I can take as a user.

We can do better:

→ Prove it's still working.
A spinning indicator. A pulse. Something. Silence at 97% feels like failure.

Here's the problem: percentages measure steps completed, not time remaining. If there are 100 backend steps and the first 97 take 3 minutes while the last 3 take an hour, that progress bar is technically accurate—and technically completely useless.

I highly doubt cavemen were taking 8-hour rests. And I know hundreds of years ago folks would get up and do things in the middle of the night and then go back to bed for a bit.

Personally, I never really sleep more than 6 hours a night unless I'm sick or especially exhausted.