What's the canonical name for the "sunburst" waiting animation?

Question

Is there an accepted name for the spinning animation that's displayed when one needs to wait for an indefinite amount of time? It looks like this:

enter image description here

While not the official name, I've generally seen it referred to as either the "spinning gear" or "that d**n spinning gear". — joelseph, Sep 08 '11 at 03:24

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 10 '17 at 10:57

27

The canonical name is the "asynchronous progress indicator" but in most user documentation it is described as "a progress indicator (that looks like a spinning gear)". The Apple Publications Style Guide (non-Apple source!) is a nice reference for learning what Apple considers the correct terms for writing about these details correctly.

The four specific types of generic progress indicators that Apple provides to developers are:

asynchronous progress indicator (spinning gear)
determinate progress bar (moving bar)
indeterminate progress bar (spinning striped cylinder)
spinning wait cursor (colored pinwheel)

I'm writing a short postscript since many confuse the spinning gear with the colored pinwheel:

The colored pinwheel is colloquially known as the spinning pizza of death or SPOD cursor due to user frustration when it appears to signal a hung process. It is the worst indicator for the user to see since it means the programmer either didn't or couldn't keep the main program responsive. We as users have no clue what part of the program is waiting for something to progress, only that it's stuck.

edited Nov 10 '17 at 10:57

klanomath

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answered Sep 08 '11 at 03:19

bmike

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Re the coloured pinwheel, I know it as the spinning beach ball of death :) – stuffe Sep 08 '11 at 08:36
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Oddly, I refer to it as "beach ball" or SPOD which causes some to wonder how I can prefer beach ball in long form, but abbreviate that with a P in the short form. Both terms have clearly become habit. – bmike Sep 08 '11 at 11:33
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I, too, also have always heard beachball (and the verb beachballing, as in "Safari is beachballing because I loaded some Flash"). – Cajunluke Sep 08 '11 at 17:06
Looks like the address to the Apple Style Guide has changed. – Tim FitzGerald Oct 10 '14 at 16:55
@bmike Most interestingly, SPOD and SBOD are next to impossible to differentiate when spoken aloud. Perhaps this is the source of your apparently contradictory preferences! – Georges Oates Larsen Nov 20 '15 at 10:56

score 18 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 08 '11 at 02:59

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It is called the "Asynchronous Progress Indicator". You can read more about it, and other elements of Mac OS X, in their OS X HIG Guidelines.

answered Sep 08 '11 at 02:59

I love the link to the HIG documents - they seem to be more recent than the style guide (which almost predates iOS) – bmike Sep 08 '11 at 16:40

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 08 '11 at 16:15

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The technical term for it is a Throbber.

edited Sep 08 '11 at 16:15

Jason Salaz

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answered Sep 08 '11 at 10:18

Rory Harvey

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And we wonder why this name never took off? – Jason Salaz Sep 08 '11 at 16:15
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Oh netscape - your satellite is still in orbit all these years later... – bmike Sep 09 '11 at 14:27

What's the canonical name for the "sunburst" waiting animation?

3 Answers3

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