Should your app show its work?

Faster always wins: every second of waiting feels like a cost.

In five experiments with simulated travel and dating sites, people often preferred a site that showed its work as it happened over one that returned identical results instantly, even when they had to wait longer. Seeing the effort raised how much they valued the service.

Seen effort invites reciprocity: people felt they owed the service something back.

• Replace a generic spinner with the steps the system really takes, in plain words: "Checking 14 airlines", "Comparing fares", "Sorting by price".
• Show each step as it happens and mark finished steps.
• Keep the steps truthful and in the order they really run.

• Invent steps or show progress that does not match real work.
• Slow down a result that is already fast so it looks busier.
• Keep animating once the result is ready.

• Simulated travel and dating sites; the studies measured preference and perceived value, not task success.
• The paper also tests where the effect stops. It is never a reason to make anything slower.

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