Bug 570931

Summary:	Usability Issue with Heap Usage bar vs. Progress bar
Product:	[Eclipse Project] Platform	Reporter:	Gunnar Wagenknecht <gunnar>
Component:	UI	Assignee:	Platform-UI-Inbox <Platform-UI-Inbox>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	P3	CC:	rolf.theunissen
Version:	4.19
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	PC
OS:	Mac OS X
Whiteboard:

Description Gunnar Wagenknecht

2021-02-04 14:24:19 EST

New user feedback shows that the Heap Usage bar is confusing. We had a few instances already where users were waiting on Eclipse "for a very long time" to finish what it's doing. When they post screenshots it turned out that they thought the Heap Usage bar is a progress bar and were waiting on it.

It made me realise that for a long time Eclipse user it's obvious. But if new users are confused there is a usability issue to look into.

The heap usage bar uses a "progress" bar as visualization, which is too similar to a progress bar. 
The progress indicator is too little and not prominent enough compared to the heap usage bar.


Should the heap usage use something else for visualization? Perhaps a vertical bar with just percentage and more details on hover? It could switch color if the percentage is above a threshold. 

Should the progress indicator become more prominent?

Comment 1 Rolf Theunissen

2021-02-04 15:02:41 EST

Note that the heap usage bar is disabled by default now, see Bug 558754, because it is confusing.

For alternative visualizations, a vertical bar would reduce confusion. Other options could be a gauge or a graph. There should be some examples for resource usage widgets that would fit the height of the bottom bar.