Movingwaiting

Movingwaiting is a coined term describing the practice of engaging in movement or performing micro-tasks during a waiting period in order to reduce perceived or actual wait time and improve throughput. The term combines moving and waiting and has appeared in discussions across user experience, service design, and operations management. It is not a formal concept in established scholarly literature.

Definitions and scope: movingwaiting covers patterns where light activity occurs during a wait, such as users proceeding with small actions while content loads in a digital interface, customers moving or performing short actions in queues, and workers handling quick ancillary tasks during downtimes to keep operations flowing. The goal is to distribute activity over the waiting period to make the overall experience feel shorter and more purposeful.

Applications and examples: in digital contexts, skeleton screens, progress indicators, and optional interactive prompts can provide a sense of movement while data loads; in physical services, customers might stroll through a showroom or engage with nearby displays while their service is prepared; in workplaces, staff might conduct quick replenishment or cleanup tasks while a process completes.

Criticism and limits: the effectiveness of movingwaiting depends on context and design; inappropriate or excessive movement can backfire, cause fatigue, or raise safety concerns. Measuring impact can be challenging because perceived wait time is subjective and influenced by task complexity and user expectations.

See also: perceived wait time, queuing theory, user experience, flow.