How can you use the "visibility of system status" principle to guide users?

Progress Indicators: Display loading bars or percentage completion during lengthy processes. Feedback Messages: Provide real-time updates on system actions to keep users informed. Navigation Highlighting: Clearly indicate the user's current position within a process or workflow. Error Messages: Clearly communicate errors and suggest solutions for quick resolution. Task Status Icons: Use visual cues to signify completed, ongoing, or pending tasks. Status Bars: Show system status at a glance, indicating normal operation or potential issues. Confirmation Dialogs: Confirm critical actions to prevent accidental errors. Timely Notifications: Alert users to completed tasks or changes in system status.

The "visibility of system status" principle in UX design emphasizes the importance of keeping users informed about what is happening within a system. This can be achieved by providing clear and concise feedback about the current status of the system, including information about processes, progress indicators, and error messages. By doing so, users are less likely to become frustrated or confused, leading to enhanced satisfaction and trust in the product or service.

In UX we believe that transparency and honesty come first. We make sure that our user not only feels like they have control but also feel like what they see is what they get. The user experience should feel like an open book, and while reading it, you get delightful surprises here and there. User experience is also based highly on trust, so when the user gets all necessary portions of information at the right time, they can feel confident and delighted when using such a smooth product.

The "visibility of system status" is one of Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. It emphasizes the importance of keeping users informed about what's happening within a system or interface. Use visual cues like feedback, progress indicators, and error messages to keep users informed about what's happening in your interface. This ensures they stay on track, feel in control and have a smoother experience.

Recognizing the significance of the "visibility of system status" principle is pivotal for empowering users. Transparency in system status fosters user confidence and control, ensuring a positive interaction with various platforms. When users are well-informed about the system's state, they can navigate seamlessly, make informed decisions, and remain engaged. This principle not only prevents frustration and errors but also cultivates satisfaction and loyalty among users. As a senior product designer, I've observed that incorporating visual cues and real-time feedback into the user interface significantly enhances the application of this principle, creating a more user-centric experience.

Here comes in handy all that research and expertise you have as a user experience designer. If you have actively listened to your users, you will know where, when and how to provide such feedback through the system. This is the proof of concept step where you as a team have to advocate for yourself as a good and considerate communicator facing your user. Such communication expertise is highly needed when we are talking about sensitive information such as money, health, privacy and safety.

Feedback should always be clear, concise, consistent, and immediately put into "effect" once the cause has been triggered. It is also possible to overdo your feedback, for example, by bombarding the user with multiple messages at once, instead of them into one message. Even if the errors are all literally true, it doesn't serve the UX well if the user feels like a fool for engaging e.g. "Connection error. Your post wasn't saved or published. Please try again." is fine as a single message. But imagine the same trigger prompting three separate messages "Connection error" "Error: your post wasn't saved" "Error: your post wasn't published". Now it feels like there's three separate errors, instead of one which caused the other two.

In my experience, adhering to the "visibility of system status" principle involves providing timely and informative feedback. For instance, consider a real-time preview feature in a photo editing app. As users apply filters or adjustments, the instant preview visually communicates the outcome, guiding users in their editing process. This dynamic feedback not only enhances user confidence but also streamlines the overall interaction, aligning with the principles of clear, context-aware communication. Ensuring consistency in feedback styles across the platform fosters a cohesive and intuitive user experience.

Effectively leveraging the "visibility of system status" principle involves skillfully indicating the status through clear and meaningful elements. Consider a project management tool where a color-coded task list provides an instant overview of completion status. Green signals accomplished tasks, while red highlights pending items, offering users immediate insights. This intuitive visual representation aligns with user expectations and facilitates quick comprehension of their progress. When implementing status indicators, prioritizing visibility, responsiveness to system changes, and user-centric design ensures that users stay informed and confidently navigate through their tasks.

This is sometimes neglected in long form registrations or request processes. You should always be communicating to users: -how much is left -what happens if I quit now -can I pick this back up later

When you use the "visibility of system status" principle to guide users, it is crucial to test and improve the design to ensure its effectiveness. Here are some steps you can follow to test and enhance your design: 1. Define your testing objectives. 2. Choose the appropriate testing method. 3. Select the right participants. 4. Create realistic scenarios. 5. Collect and analyze data. 6. Iterate and improve the design.

Avoid generic labels! These can only create more confusion, uncertainty and panic for your users, especially if you provide any kind of sensitive information services. My bank has two different apps for online banking, one called George which has phenomenal user experience and it shows. The feedback is instant, it has integrated support and a chat segment even, which takes it one notch above other applications. The other one is called mBanking, and I am not sure if it is a predecessor or successor, but it is clear that different teams have developed the app. This is reflected in slower system feedback and also the use of generic labels such as "Payment transaction fee collection" on dates that don't match the dates of the transactions.

Whenever possible, use periodic saving of content and progress. Let the user know you've saved their progress, and that they'll be able to pick-up where they left off if they get disconnected or have to exit mid-way for whatever reason. Executing on that piece at a high level can significantly reduce the stress a User experiences while working through even long forms or processes with lots of manual entry.