feedback-and-status

Feedback and Status Design

Design system feedback that reaches every user — regardless of whether they can see the screen, hear audio, or feel vibration. No single sense should be the only channel.

Core Principle

Never communicate status through one sense alone. What happens if the user can't see it? Can't hear it? Can't feel it?

The Multi-Channel Rule

Every piece of feedback should work through at least two channels:

Feedback type	Visual	Text	Sound	Haptic
Success	Green tick	"Saved successfully"	Confirmation tone	Short vibration
Error	Red highlight	Specific error message	Alert tone	Double vibration
Loading	Spinner/bar	"Loading..."	None (silence)	None
Warning	Yellow banner	Warning text	Optional tone	Optional vibration

Screen readers are a critical third channel — all visual feedback must be announced to assistive technology.

Design Patterns

Don't Rely on Colour Alone

• Red/green is invisible to 8% of men with colour vision deficiency
• Always combine colour with: icon, text label, pattern, or position
• Error states: red + error icon + text description
• Success states: green + tick icon + text confirmation
• Test: does this still communicate the same thing in greyscale?

Immediate Feedback

• Button press: visual change within 100ms (pressed state)
• Form submission: loading indicator within 1 second
• Completion: success message within 2 seconds of finishing
• Error: highlight the specific field, not just a banner at the top

Persistent vs. Transient Feedback

• Transient (toast/snackbar): only for non-critical confirmations. Show for at least 5 seconds. Include a way to review missed messages.
• Persistent (inline): for errors, warnings, and anything the user needs to act on. Never auto-dismiss error messages.
• Screen reader users miss transient messages — use aria-live="polite" for non-urgent updates, aria-live="assertive" for critical alerts.

Progress Communication

• Determinate progress (known duration): show percentage or step count
• Indeterminate progress (unknown duration): show spinner with text like "Loading your results..."
• Long processes (over 10 seconds): add estimated time remaining
• Very long processes: allow background processing with notification on completion

Status Without Vision

• All status changes must be announced to screen readers
• Use aria-live regions for dynamic content updates
• Don't rely on visual position alone to convey status (e.g., a moved item in a kanban board needs a text announcement)
• Error messages must be programmatically associated with their field (aria-describedby)

Assessment Questions

1. Is colour ever the only indicator of status?
2. Can a screen reader user perceive every status change?
3. Are error messages persistent until resolved?
4. Do transient messages display long enough to be read?
5. Does every user action produce perceivable feedback?