We're planning on integrating some kind of progress bar in a multi-step process.
Our developers figured it would make sense that on step 4 of 9, 3/9ths of the bar would be filled in to show how many steps were actually completed:
However, a few regular people I showed the examples to were initially confused and thought since you're on step 4, 4/9ths should be filled in.
So I was thinking of doing something like this as a compromise but I don't really like it:
My question: Are there any related best practices/research on whether to show in the progress bar how much has been completed vs what step they are currently on?