Terence McDevitt on 12 Jun 2018 20:45:03
The current load indicator (the small spinner in the upper left of reports) isn't really sufficient for users. On our larger reports, which can take a while to load, the user sees a large empty area where we'll the report will eventually render the visuals. Users aren't seeing the small spinner so they think something's wrong. If they're patient enough, they'll eventually see the report visuals load correctly.
It would be great if we had more control over the "loading" state. Ideally, we'd obscure the visuals with a "Loading. Please Wait." overlay. Something along those lines.
- Comments (23)
- Merged Idea (6)
RE: Need better loading indicator for reports
In cases when you are using coloured headers, but also in general, the loading animation per visual is sometimes hard to spot for business users.
Especially if filters have been changed and heavy calculations are in progress, it requires some effort to spot when this process is actually done loading.
Would it be possible to think of a over arching icon/message to indicate that certain visuals are still loading, or to improve existing indicators to have more contrast in context to the title background color.
Please see the example where the loading indicator is hardly visible:
https://bit.ly/3d41fKc
RE: Need better loading indicator for reports
Typically, when a report is loading, you see each individual visual load asynchronously, which provides a frustrating user experience.
Instead, the user experience could be upgraded by having an intermediate view of "report loading" with an animated refresh icon. Once all visual components are loaded, the report is rendered.
RE: Need better loading indicator for reports
It's very important for users to know when data has been refreshed, following a selection they made. In August 2018 Server version, it seems that the spinner in the upper left corner of each visual only works sometimes, meaning often users have no idea whether the visual has new data or not. At the very least, the spinner should be fixed. But better still would be to grey out the visuals until the new data has loaded.
Apologies if I've missed something obvious. Many thanks to the great Power BI community!
RE: Need better loading indicator for reports
It would be great for report building to have the option to personalize the loading spinner, either to make it bigger or to be able to import a GIF or an image (with a loading icon), to be visible during refresh/data loading and eventually to disappear from the page after the results are shown.
I think this would be very beneficial especially for reports with large amounts of numbers and also great for the user experience.
RE: Need better loading indicator for reports
The Visuals are loading... spinner icon in the upper left is very difficult to see (especially when you use a dark background title bar). Increasing the size (at least 2X3 times what its is now) & placing it in the center of the visual will guarantee that users know that the visual is not current.
RE: Need better loading indicator for reports
100% agree. This is a UX issue that needs to be addressed. As mentioned by others, this design causes frustration and confusion for users - which impacts their impression of Power BI as a whole. While BI Developers know to look for the very small indicator, business users do not.
RE: Need better loading indicator for reports
100% agreed for larger and more colorful dashboards we need larger loading indicator or be able customize it.
RE: Need better loading indicator for reports
I agree the user experience (especially for new users) of not clearnign understanding when data is loading has been a cause or resistance to adoption, and overall slowed adoption. We need a way dax function we can use to customize our own 'spinner' warnings like, a pop-up message that "data is loading" vs "Data is ready", or red light / green light in a corner of the report, etc.
RE: Need better loading indicator for reports
if DAX function could detect when refresh is occurring vs completed, then we could use this function to customize the spinner functionality, such as a pop up message "Data Loading", or red light / green light signal for users.