Have you ever thought how life would be like without technology technological improvements? Imagine how the laptop experience would be different without a touch pad? Or typing on a keyboard at night without the keyboard back lit option?

We are more familiar with people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates that revolutionized the personal computer industry. Who we don’t know are the “mini-Steve Jobs” and “mini-Bill Gates” that enhanced our experiences with these products. The name, Brad A. Myers, probably won’t ring a bell in an average person’s mind. However, everyone that uses a computer will come across his work at least once. Any idea on what this is?

The progress bar! Yes, that little bar that tells how much longer you have to wait until your new Facebook profile picture is uploaded. This improvement may be unnoticeable to the user, but according to Myer’s theory on the “percent-done progress indicators”, a progress bar reduces user anxiety to ensure a more relaxed experience even if the progress bar does not accurately reflect the percentage of completion. That is right! All of us have been deceived by the progress bar! (Hopefully this truth won’t raise your anxiety levels the next time you are waiting for the progress bar.)

Can you think of any subliminal improvements that were made on technology and the reason behind such improvements?