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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?
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.
