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HeuristicExpert heuristicFoundational

Visibility of System Status

The interface should always tell the user what is going on, through timely and appropriate feedback.

Definition

The first of Jakob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics. Users need a continuously accurate picture of the system's state so they can decide what to do next, and every action needs a visible consequence within a reasonable time.

Expert heuristic. A review criterion developed by practitioners. Useful and widely taught, but evaluated by judgement rather than measurement.

On this page
  1. Definition
  2. Three questions status has to answer
  3. Matching the indicator to the wait
  4. In practice
  5. Sources
  6. Continue from here

Three questions status has to answer

Where am I, what is happening right now, and did my action work. Almost every status failure is one of those three going unanswered.

Status is not only loading indicators. A selected navigation item, a saved indicator, an unread count, a connection state and a validation result are all system status.

Matching the indicator to the wait

SituationRight response
Instant local changeChange the state. No indicator.
Under 1 second network callOptimistic update, or a disabled control. Delay any spinner by 200 to 400ms.
1 to 10 secondsSkeleton shaped like the result, or a determinate progress bar.
Over 10 secondsProgress with an estimate, and a way to leave and be notified.
Background jobPersistent status surface the user can return to.
FailureInline message next to the cause, stating what happened and what to do.

Do

  • Mark the current location in navigation, with more than colour alone.
  • Confirm saves explicitly, including autosaves.
  • Surface offline and degraded states rather than failing silently.
  • Announce dynamic status changes to assistive technology with a live region.

Do not

  • Show a spinner for something that finishes in 150ms.
  • Use a toast for a message the user needs to act on. Toasts vanish.
  • Report success before the write has actually landed, unless you can roll back visibly.
  • Leave a disabled button with no explanation of what would enable it.

In practice

Autosave indicators

Document editors

A quiet 'Saved' with a timestamp, replaced briefly by 'Saving' during the write, removes the anxiety that drives compulsive manual saving. Silence reads as risk.

Selected state in navigation

Web applications

Marking the current section with weight and a rule, not just colour, answers 'where am I' for every user including those who cannot distinguish the colour.

Sources

Where a source establishes something narrower than the popular reading of it, the note says so.

Continue from here

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Why this works

The reasoning this entry rests on.

Applied through

Where this shows up as a concrete interface decision.

Check your work

Review passes that test whether this was done properly.

Short definition

The one-paragraph version, for when that is all you need.

Related concept

Connected closely enough to change how you apply this.