notifications-and-recovery

Notifications and Recovery

When something changes — success, failure, or anything in between — the user must know. And when something goes wrong, they must always have a path forward. A notification without a recovery action is just an apology.

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Pattern Selection

Pattern	When to use	Dismissal
Toast	Transient result of a user action (saved, sent, deleted)	Auto-dismiss 4–6s, manual close
Inline error	Field-level validation, form errors	Clears on correction
Alert banner	Persistent issue affecting the current context	Manual dismiss or resolved state
Modal / dialog	Blocking error requiring a decision before continuing	User action required
Empty state	No data yet — guide the user to the first action	N/A
Skeleton / loading	Async content pending	Replaced by content
In-place confirmation	Inline edit saved, row updated, item toggled	Auto-clears after 2–3s

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Toast Notifications

Toasts confirm that a background action completed. They appear without interrupting the user's flow.

Placement: bottom-center or bottom-right. Never top-center — it competes with page content and navigation.

Duration: 4–6 seconds for information. Errors should persist until dismissed — the user needs time to read and act.

Anatomy:

[Icon] Message text                    [Action] [×]

• Icon: colour-coded (green ✓ success, red ✗ error, orange ⚠ warning, blue ℹ info)
• Message: one sentence, plain language
• Action (optional): "Undo", "Retry", "View" — one action maximum
• Close button: always present on errors; optional on success

✓ "Changes saved."
✓ "Message sent.  [Undo]"
✗ "Could not save. Check your connection.  [Retry]"  ← persists until dismissed

Never: multiple simultaneous toasts. Queue them; show one at a time.

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Inline Errors

Inline errors appear adjacent to the element that caused them. They are the most contextual and actionable form of error feedback.

Form validation:

• Validate on blur (leaving a field), not on every keystroke — keystroke validation is noisy
• Validate on submit for the complete form
• Show the error message directly below the field, in red, with an icon
• The field border changes to --color-error
• Error message is associated via aria-describedby for screen readers

<label for="email">Email</label>
<input id="email" aria-describedby="email-error" aria-invalid="true">
<p id="email-error" role="alert">Enter a valid email address.</p>

In-place editing:

• When a field is edited inline (table cell, card title), show save/cancel controls adjacent to the field
• On save: brief success indicator ("✓ Saved") that fades after 2s — do not navigate away
• On error: inline error message below the field with a retry option
• On cancel: restore the original value immediately

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Alert Banners

Banners are persistent — they stay until the condition is resolved or the user dismisses them.

Use for:

• Service degradation ("Some features are temporarily unavailable")
• Account issues requiring action ("Your subscription expires in 3 days. [Renew]")
• Ongoing sync errors ("Changes are not saving. [Retry]")
• Important announcements tied to the current page

Placement: top of the affected section, not the entire page unless the issue is truly global.

Anatomy:

[Icon] [Message — describes the issue and its scope] [Action] [×]

• One banner at a time per region — multiple simultaneous banners create alarm fatigue
• Dismissible unless the condition is blocking
• Colour follows status colour conventions: red (error), orange (warning), blue (info), green (success/resolved)

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Recovery Patterns

Every error state must have a path forward. Design the recovery action at the same time as the error message.

Retry

For transient failures (network, timeout, rate limit):

"Could not load results."
[Try again]

• Retry button triggers the same action
• After 3 failed retries, escalate: "Still having trouble? [Contact support]"
• Show a spinner during retry — do not let the user click multiple times

Undo

For destructive or irreversible actions (delete, archive, send):

"Message sent.  [Undo]  ×"

• Undo window: 5–10 seconds. Toast persists for this duration.
• After the window closes, the action is final
• Undo is preferable to confirmation dialogs for low-stakes actions — it is faster and less disruptive

Autosave and Draft Recovery

For long-form inputs (forms, documents, editors):

• Autosave every 30–60 seconds silently
• On save failure: "Autosave failed — your changes are stored locally. [Retry save]"
• On return after crash or close: "You have unsaved changes from [time]. [Restore] [Discard]"

Graceful Degradation

When a feature fails but the rest of the product still works:

• Show an error state for the failed section only — do not blank the entire page
• Offer a fallback: "Could not load recommendations. [Browse all products →]"
• Log the error silently; surface only what the user needs to know

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Loading and Skeleton States

Loading is not an error, but it is a state that needs design.

• Skeleton screens for content-heavy pages — show the layout shape while data loads
• Spinners for targeted async actions (button loading, inline refresh)
• Progress bars for long operations with known duration (file upload, multi-step processing)
• Never show a blank screen while loading — always show something

Skeleton screens reduce perceived wait time compared to spinners. Match the skeleton shape to the actual content layout.

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The Notification Center

Toasts and banners are transient; a notification center is the persistent place a user goes to review and control what reaches them. Two things make it work.

Easy to reach, and easy to control. The user must get to their notification preferences with almost no digging (a bell icon → the center → settings). And keep the control model coarse — 1 to 3 categories at most, each with a simple level:

• Off (0) — none of this category
• Minimal — only the important ones
• All / granular — everything

Don't build a wall of per-event toggles. Two real needs dominate: silence everything, or keep one or two categories. Design straight for those — a prominent "mute all" / "mark all read" plus 1–3 category switches.

Minimise reading. The center is scanned, not read. Group by category, lead each item with a recognisable icon and the entity/action (not a paragraph), show unread state clearly, and let the whole list be cleared in one action. Reading is time (see [[ui-density]]) — a notification center that demands careful reading defeats its purpose.

Notification Accessibility

• Errors use role="alert" — announced immediately by screen readers
• Status updates use role="status" — announced politely (after current speech)
• Toasts must be reachable by keyboard — do not use pointer-events: none on the close button
• Auto-dismissing toasts must have sufficient duration (prefers-reduced-motion users may need more time to read)

<!-- Error: immediate announcement -->
<div role="alert">Could not save. Check your connection.</div>

<!-- Status: polite announcement -->
<div role="status" aria-live="polite">Changes saved.</div>

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Review Checklist

• Does every error have a recovery action (retry, undo, contact support)?
• Do toasts auto-dismiss for success but persist for errors?
• Is there never more than one toast visible at a time?
• Are inline errors placed adjacent to the field, not at the top of the form?
• Are form errors associated to their inputs via aria-describedby?
• Do alert banners appear at the top of the affected section, not always full-page?
• Is autosave or draft recovery available for long-form inputs?
• Do loading states use skeletons for content and spinners for targeted actions?
• Are errors announced via role="alert" and status updates via role="status"?