Elevating user experience: The power of UI feedback

What is User Interface Feedback?

Feedback, in simpler terms, is the reaction to actions. In UX Design, User Interface Feedback refers to the multiple ways through which a product responds to the actions performed by a user. In most cases, UI feedback is visual like a tooltip, pop-up, toast, or notification. But, it can also be conveyed through other senses. For example, feedback can be auditory in nature like a message alert or a camera shutter sound when a picture is captured. It can also be haptic like a vibration accompanying a call. UI Feedback can serve different purposes, such as confirming an action, showing the outcome of an action, indicating an error, or providing helpful information.

Why is it important?

UI Feedback is a crucial aspect of user experience (UX) design because it helps users understand what’s happening with the product they’re interacting with. This is especially important in situations where the outcome is not immediately obvious. Lack of UI feedback can lead users to waste time carrying out unnecessary investigative actions when the preferred outcome is already achieved, which can result in a very frustrating user experience.

One of the main reasons UI feedback is important is that it supports Internal Locus of Control, that is, it helps users feel in control. When users perform an action, they want to know that it’s been registered by the system and that something is happening as a result.

Another important aspect of UI feedback is that it can help prevent errors. For example, when a user tries to submit a form with missing information, a message can appear letting them know what needs to be fixed. This kind of feedback can save users time and frustration by helping them identify and fix problems before they become bigger issues.

UI Feedback can also provide users with a sense of accomplishment. For example, when a user completes a task, a message or visual cue can appear to let them know they’ve succeeded. This kind of feedback can make the user feel good about what they’ve accomplished and may encourage them to continue using the product.

In addition, UI feedback can also be used to guide users through a task or process. For example, a tutorial or onboarding process may use feedback to explain how to perform certain actions or navigate through different sections of a product. It can also be used to provide useful information pertaining to that task or process, like the ‘i’ button which opens a tooltip with relevant information. This kind of feedback can be especially useful for first-time users or for products that have complex or unfamiliar interfaces.

How to design UI Feedback?

It’s important to note that UI feedback should be designed in a way that is:

• Clear: The language should be easy to understand, should not have any ‘tech-speak’, which can be confusing for most of the users, and should not be ambiguous. For example, “No Data Found” can be used instead of “Error 404” for a not found error.
• Consistent: UI Feedback should be consistent across the product, both in language as well as design elements. For example, the tone of the message has to be formal, neutral, or informal across the product.
• Appropriate for the Context: A product with uplifting and positive language cannot have a serious or negative message as feedback. Also, the intensity of the language should be proportional to the importance of the message. For example, an error that can potentially delete a user’s information cannot be subtle. On the other hand, simple feedback for a successful file download should not take up the entire screen and break the user’s flow.

In addition, feedback should be provided within a reasonable amount of time after any action has been performed. Delayed feedback can lead to a very annoying user experience, where the user can get impatient and try to perform the action multiple times. For example, a delay in receiving an OTP can lead users to tap on “resend code” repeatedly, leaving the users with multiple OTP messages.

Conclusion

In conclusion, UI Feedback is a key aspect of user experience design. It can be visual, auditory, or haptic in nature and can serve different purposes, such as confirming an action, showing the outcome of an action, indicating an error, or providing helpful information. UI Feedback helps users understand what’s happening with the product they’re interacting with, helps them feel in control, helps prevent errors, provides a sense of accomplishment, and can guide users through tasks or processes. It’s important that UI Feedback is designed in a way that is clear, consistent, and appropriate for the context. In addition, feedback should be provided within a reasonable amount of time after any action has been performed, in order to avoid frustration for the users.