Progress indicator and growlers

Summary  

For slow to load pages (e.g., Forecasts in RAFT) we’ve built in a progress indicator to show users that the page is loading. 

In addition, on pages that a user may work on at different times throughout the day, i.e., a complex form that requires them to make multiple updates, we've provided a way for users to save their changes as they work while staying on the page to continue making changes. In this case, the system uses a growler -- a dialog box in the top right corner of the page that rotates a short message, indicating the change has been saved and the forecast has been updated.

Code

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Example

Related patterns 

Problem

Users need to see that the requested action (for instance, opening a large workset) is in progress.

Users are working on a long scrolling page and may not notice calculations or other changes happening at the top of the screen when they click the Save button lower on the screen. 

Solution

The growler catches their attention and alerts them that the change was made to the page they are working on.

Rationale

We tested this page without the growler and users were uncertain their changes were reflected without the alert message. The growler works well because it is unobtrusive, and after the first experience with it, users won’t need to read the message to understand their changes have been saved.