Users need to tell where they are in the plan and how much remains

What it is

Following the current object is not enough. A person must be able to point: which step in the plan this is, what it still intends to do, roughly how long. Position in plan and remainder is the skeleton of progress, folding a string of steps into a navigable map, not into a “running” badge.

Not knowing what remains, people cannot decide to leave now, stop now, or change scope now.

Why it happens

The projection layer of situation awareness wants “what will it be in a few beats.” With no remainder that layer is empty, and people can only react to the present. Plan-node grain gives countable cells; position is the current cell, remainder is the cells after and their uncertainty. A percentage bar lies when total length is unknown; agent tasks often have unknown length, so report nodes and “still uncertain,” not a fake 73%.

A sense of position sits on followable grain. An overly dense log has no cells to count. Position also requires the displayed path to be real — fake nodes make “three steps left” a lie.

Studying it

Mid-way probes: which step now, what is left, can I go do something else. Compare: current tool only, a node list with current highlighted, a node list plus remaining time or an uncertainty mark. Dependent variables: probe accuracy, leaving too early, judging stuck when they should wait. Independent variables: whether total length is known, whether remainder includes uncertainty, whether nodes will change.

Leaving too early and false stuck are both failures of position, in opposite directions.

Where it stops holding

A one-step task has no “which step.” When the plan is rewritten during execution, position and remainder must change with it, or the skeleton is old — notifying plan change is a neighbouring problem. A long phase with no output needs its own account of why it is not advancing; a remainder number must not paper over it. A fabricated path makes position precise and wrong.

Applying it

• Pin a plan rail on the process view: done, current, not yet. If not-yet is uncertain, mark it uncertain; do not fill with a smooth percentage.
• Let people ask per node “how much longer”; if you cannot answer, say so, and say whether it is waiting on a tool, on a person, or computing.
• Check: mid-way, send the person off-screen for ten seconds, then ask “where now, what remains, can I leave.” One wrong answer of the three, and the skeleton is not yet standing. Take the percentage away and ask again — if it gets worse, people had been leaning on fake precision, not on nodes.

Related

• Same group: L4.12.1 Observable intermediate steps turn after-the-fact correction into in-process intervention · L4.12.2 Steps that are too dense exceed the user's ability to follow; visibility degrades into a scrolling log · L4.12.4 Displayed steps must be the real execution path; a fabricated process misleads when to intervene · L4.12.5 Long phases with no output need their own explanation, or they will be judged as stuck
• Nearby: L4.14 Plan Visibility and Revision for Multi-step Tasks · L4.08 Visibility of Task Progress · L1.12 Latency and Streaming Experience
• Search terms: progress · plan position · situation awareness