AJAX activity indicators

An important design element that’s part of the whole AJAX business is somehow letting your user know that stuff is actually happening while the server crunches away. A common way to do so, is to add a little animated GIF that is only shown when the AJAX request is happening.

37signals favor this one, which is taken more or less directly from Mac OS X, I reckon – at least stylistically. I am not sure of the copyrights on that piece of graphic, so I am reluctant to use it in my own apps. Also, occasionally you want something a bit different.

Which is why I’ve made and collected a few free (both as in beer and speech) animated GIFs and put them up here. Download and use them in whatever project you want.

If you have an activity indicator of your own and you want to share it with the world, email it to me, and I’ll get it up there.