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Toasts are bad UX

maxschmitt.me

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Re: Toasts are bad UX

#31

Post by taneq »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #16

Timed toasts are bad for accessibility too, see WCAG 2.2: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#enough-time Basically, the user should be able to configure toast messages; they should not autohide, or the time they hide should be adjustable, or they should be extendable within 20 seconds. TL;DR, self-hiding messages, dialogs, etc are not good for a11y. That said, the toasts have a button where the user can undo the action ta…

It’s almost like we need a semantic level where the developer says “I want to send the use this small transient text message” and then a presentation level where a user can decide which method of presenting this information works best for them…

Re: Toasts are bad UX

#32

Post by katzinsky »

taneq wrote: post #31
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #16

Timed toasts are bad for accessibility too, see WCAG 2.2: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#enough-time Basically, the user should be able to configure toast messages; they should not autohide, or the time they hide should be adjustable, or they should be extendable within 20 seconds. TL;DR, self-hiding messages, dialogs, etc are not good for a11y. That said, the toasts have a button where the user can undo the action ta…

It’s almost like we need a semantic level where the developer says “I want to send the use this small transient text message” and then a presentation level where a user can decide which method of presenting this information works best for them…

Email is nice.

>But I don't want so many mails in my inbox

Then write mail rules. It's really easy and personally I couldn't survive at work without them. That's a big part of why it's nice: You can choose how it works unlike practically everything else these days.

Re: Toasts are bad UX

#33

Post by dvdkon »

Manfred wrote: post #13
ervine wrote: post #7

Maybe bad UX, but global error / success handling of network requests is way easier than handling in every component that triggers one.

I don't think that's a convincing argument unless you are a tiny company that has to optimize for development time. You can also wonder why the frameworks you are using make this hard, because it's a pretty common to want feedback close to where the action happens.

I don't know anyone who isn't optimising for development time in some way. That said, most frameworks don't provide any worthwhile error handling infrastructure, and it's a problem.

In a Jetpack Compose app I wrote, I created generic "error barrier" components, so that error messages display over relevant parts of the app, with just a few lines each time, timeouts included. I think this is the best approach, easy for developers and informative for users. Too many apps just ignore errors.

Re: Toasts are bad UX

#34

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

iambateman wrote: post #6

Toasts are bad UX for an app which is used in a casual context, yes. The odds that an untrained user missed them and becomes confused are quite high. But there is nothing wrong with a toast in a pro app. The pro user will get used to where feedback comes from on the screen and find it is second nature to notice the toast. In practice, there are very few UX principles that generalize across every interface.

Classic. People that are bad at UX design using the “pro app” catch-all to justify all sorts of bad decisions.

I spend all day in “pro apps”. I am also visually impaired. The inappropriateness of toasts has nothing to do with my familiarity with the app. I may, eventually, learn that a particular UI is using toasts to indicate something. That doesn’t suddenly make it okay. They’re still a massive pain in the ass for me. They’re still a massive pain in the ass for a lot of people. They’re still a poorly thought out holdover from the days of 640x480 displays, and with a modern resolution they’re even less appropriate.

Re: Toasts are bad UX

#35

Post by choward »

"We do have to consider the undo-functionality and that the toast feedback can be useful when using keyboard shortcuts."

There's nothing more infuriating than going to click undo and the toast disappears.

Re: Toasts are bad UX

#36

Post by suyash »

It's an effective UX tool for smaller screens like how it was created for Android phones, in larger displays it doesn't work as effectively.

Re: Toasts are bad UX

#37

Post by mattdesl »

To play devils advocate:

- if your app has a number of messages (eg: “image downloaded” or “message sent” or whatever) then there is a consistency in using toasts as they all appear in the same predictable manner

- often “appear away from focus” is one of the intended goals of a toast; it’s a message that is present, but more in the periphery (the user can ignore in most cases, and it doesn’t obscure main content)

Re: Toasts are bad UX

#38

Post by julienmarie »

A toast makes sense only in 1 case: when it's a notification that is unrelated with the current action of the user. Similar to OS types of notification that the defunct Growl (memories) invented.

Any feedback from a user action should be done within the context of the user action. If the action is async, it should be clear and the feedback should instantaneously indicate that the action is queued for processing. In that case, the feedback should give 2 options: cancel and access the queue (or better give a vision of its progress ).

Re: Toasts are bad UX

#39

Post by zombot »

It's not like we've had decades and decades of GUI experience where every problem has already been solved. Also, this week's "designer" is smarter than everyone before them -- time to reinvent the wheel!
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