Question sparked by this discussion.
Why are progress bars almost always presented as horizontal lines that increase from left to right? Is this the best method of indicating progress (and why)? And are there any significant examples of this trend being bucked?
Answer
Because most people living in the western world read from left to right, and that's how they imagine how time passes.
It's a good question wether top to bottom would benefit Japanese customers or right-to-left certain Arabic cultures, on the other hand, the cultural influences of western media and western software does change that.
It can be easily assumed, that based on their writing, they'd expect it to happen right-to-left, or top-to-bottom, but since their world is spread by iPhones and Androids and Windowses and Facebooks and whatever, they're used to that when it comes to computers, it does happen the opposite way.
Anyway, there are cultures where time traditionally passes from right-to-left. English isn't one of them, depends on your audience.
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