Confirmation & acknowledgement

Confirmation and acknowledgement communications ask for confirmation before taking an action and acknowledge successful actions.


Usage

Confirming and acknowledging user actions can reduce uncertainty about an action that a user has taken, or is about to take. They also prevent users from making mistakes.

Types of actions

  • Confirming actions ask the user to verify that they want to proceed with an action.
  • Acknowledging actions provide text to let the user know whether an action they chose has been completed.

Not all actions warrant a confirmation or an acknowledgment.


Confirmation

Usage

When a UI requests confirmation from a user, it asks if they want to proceed with the action they just took. It may be paired...

When a UI requests confirmation from a user, it asks if they want to proceed with the action they just took. It may be paired with a warning or critical information related to that action.

Confirmation isn't necessary when the consequences of an action are reversible or negligible. For example, if a check mark shows an image has been selected, further confirmation is unnecessary.


Alert dialog

Confirmation is best delivered using an alert dialog.

Confirmation is best delivered using an alert dialog.

An alert dialog confirming deletion and two actions a user can take to leave the dialog.
An alert dialog confirms the user action and informs the user of what will happen as a result.

Acknowledgement

Usage

An acknowledgement notifies the user about system actions occurring in the background. It appears for a short amount of time and may include an option...

An acknowledgement notifies the user about system actions occurring in the background. It appears for a short amount of time and may include an option to undo the action.

An acknowledgment in the form of a snackbar appears, then fades after a few seconds.
An acknowledgment appears with an undo option. It remains until the user takes an unrelated action, such as scrolling through a list.

Acknowledgement components

Acknowledgements can be delivered by a variety of components. Criteria for choosing the right acknowledgement component includes: Acknowledgements that are transient mean the component will...

Acknowledgements can be delivered by a variety of components. Criteria for choosing the right acknowledgement component includes:

  • Urgency level
  • Inclusion of an action to correct a problem
  • Duration on screen (transient, dismissable, or both)

Acknowledgements that are transient mean the component will exit on its own within a few seconds of appearing. Dismissable acknowledgements can be dismissed by selecting an action to dismiss the component.

Component Urgency Content Behavior Number of
actions to dismiss
Snackbar Low Informational Transient & dismissable 0-1
Alert Medium Correct a problem;
Awareness of state
Persistent, non-blocking,
and dismissable
1-2
Dialog High Require a choice;
Acknowledge
Persistent, blocking
(interruptive)
1-2
Empty State Medium Informational Persistent, blocking 0-2

Alert

Use alerts to deliver a persistent, in-app message that informs users of a particular change state.

An alert

Snackbar

Use a snackbar to provide brief feedback about an operation.

A snackbar

Empty state

When a UI is only available online and content has failed to load or sync, use an empty state. The user should be able to interact with as much of the rest of the app as possible. A link to reload can be presented to help a user accomplish their task.

An empty state

Up next