Q:

Animations on action buttons as a progress indicator

Are there examples of using animations on actions buttons to indicate that the action triggered by the user is in progress? Is it better to apply a modal or lightbox effect to block out other actions if the user can't do anything else anyway, or could this be an acceptable approach for devices with smaller viewing space (e.g. mobile phones).

A:

Are there examples of progress buttons you say. Indeed there are. You'll definitely like this.
If other action buttons exist on the page that will cancel out the active action, but are not cancel buttons, I would say yes, disable them. But if there is a specific action button, a cancel button, that is meant to cancel the action in progress, than I wouldn't disable them.

