Micro Interactions And Feedback

Micro-Interactions & Feedback

Use When

• Specifying the feedback for a single control: button, toggle/switch, text input, checkbox/radio, segmented control, slider, like/save action.
• Designing a signifier animation — a small hint that makes an affordance discoverable (a nudge, a pulse, a peek).
• Adding a delight moment (success burst, achievement settle) and you need to keep it sparing and dismissible.
• Wiring optimistic feedback (apply state instantly, reconcile with the server later) and its rollback path.
• Pairing motion with haptics / sound so the channels reinforce one outcome rather than fight.
• Reviewing an interaction for the trigger → rules → feedback → loops anatomy and for the bounce / animation-fatigue slop tells.

Do Not Use When

• You need the global motion law — duration tables (100/300/500), easing-vs-spring decision, GPU-property list, or the canonical prefers-reduced-motion strategy. That is ../motion-design/SKILL.md (this skill defers to it and never restates it).
• The work is page/route/view transitions or staggered entrances → ../motion-design (§4.3–4.4, View Transitions).
• The work is microcopy / error-message wording → ../../10-content-design-and-ux-writing/.
• The work is visual styling of the control at rest (colour, type, spacing, shape) → ../../04-web-and-ui-design/ or the token/theming group.

Required Inputs

• The control and its complete state set (rest, hover, focus-visible, pressed, active/checked, disabled, loading, error).
• Whether the action is local (instant, authoritative) or server-backed (needs optimistic + rollback).
• Target platforms (web / iOS / Android) and whether haptics are available and appropriate.
• The motion budget and tokens already set by motion-design (timing scale, spring presets, easing curves).

Workflow

1. Map the anatomy. For the control, write out the four layers — Trigger → Rules → Feedback → Loops & Modes — before any timing. See references/micro-interaction-anatomy.md. If you cannot name the trigger and the rule, you are decorating, not designing feedback.
2. Inherit the motion law. Pull duration/easing/spring/reduced-motion from ../motion-design/SKILL.md. Feedback sits in the 100–150 ms band (press/toggle/hover); settle/confirm uses a spring with ζ ≥ 0.7 (no visible bounce), default ζ = 1.0. Animate transform + opacity only.
3. Define every state's feedback, including focus-visible (keyboard) and disabled (no motion). Feedback must never be colour-alone — pair it with shape/icon/position/text (WCAG 1.4.1).
4. Pick the feedback channel(s) — visual, haptic, sound — and make them semantic and redundant: success haptic only for success, selection haptic only for selection changes. The control must remain fully usable with haptics/sound disabled (doctrine/references/wcag-2.2-criteria.md).
5. Decide optimistic vs. confirmed. Server-backed actions apply state instantly, fire the request in the background, and roll back only on rejection with a non-spatial error signal + recovery copy. Local actions skip the round-trip.
6. Signifiers, sparingly. A signifier animation may run once (or on idle/first-visit), must be interruptible, must never block input, and must obey reduced-motion. Never loop a "look-at-me" pulse on a primary control.
7. Delight, even more sparingly. At most one celebratory flourish per meaningful milestone; it is additive (the action already succeeded without it), ≤ ~400 ms, never on the hot path, and fully replaced under reduced-motion.
8. Write the spec as a state table + motion timeline + reduced-motion replacement + platform parity (see examples/). Run the acceptance checklist.

Decision Rules

Capability Contract

Read and search are required for component states, motion tokens, and service behaviour. Editing is allowed only when implementation is requested. Rendering or execution is required to claim timing, haptic, assistive-technology, or rollback success.

Degraded Mode

If required evidence or tooling is unavailable, use the scoped fallback below and mark the result unverified. Without a runnable control, produce a state-and-timeline specification and mark tactile, timing, and assistive checks unverified. Without server failure semantics, do not prescribe optimistic success; use pending feedback until authority is known.

Anti-Patterns

• ease-*-back / bouncy overshoot interpolators (the App Design Apprentice habit). They violate the engine's ζ ≥ 0.7 no-bounce rule and are the #1 AI animation fingerprint (doctrine/references/ai-slop-taxonomy.md). Use a spring in the no-bounce band; if you want a "pop", cap it at ζ≈0.7–0.75 (barely perceptible), never elastic.
• Animation fatigue — every control pulsing, bouncing, or flourishing. Feedback that is always on is noise; reserve motion for state change and confirmation.
• Colour-only feedback (green = on, red = error with no other cue). Fails WCAG 1.4.1 and colour-blind users.
• Decorative haptics / fake loaders — buzzing on every tap, or a spinner that runs after the work is already done. Haptics must map to outcomes; loaders only appear past the ~80 ms threshold.
• Optimistic feedback with no rollback — showing success then silently diverging from server truth. Always define the rejection path.
• Looping signifiers that never stop, or delight that blocks the next action.
• Feedback that lies about latency — instant "done" checkmark while the request is still in flight with no reconciliation.

Outputs

• A per-control micro-interaction spec: anatomy (trigger/rules/feedback/loops), state table, motion timeline (timing + easing/spring), channel map (visual/haptic/sound), optimistic + rollback path, reduced-motion replacement table, platform parity, and an acceptance checklist.

Examples

• examples/toggle-switch-feedback-spec.md — a worked notification-toggle spec: full anatomy, every state, spring settle (ζ≈0.75, no bounce), optimistic update with rollback, haptic pairing, and a considered prefers-reduced-motion replacement. Never lorem.

References

• references/micro-interaction-anatomy.md — the trigger → rules → feedback → loops model, the feedback-channel decision, signifier rules, optimistic-feedback contract, and the haptic-pairing table.
• ../motion-design/SKILL.md — the owning motion law: timing (100/300/500), easing vs spring, ζ ≥ 0.7 no-bounce, GPU-only properties, and the canonical prefers-reduced-motion strategy. This skill defers to it.
• doctrine/design-doctrine.md — the anti-slop charter; over-animated or bouncy feedback is a slop tell.
• doctrine/references/ai-slop-taxonomy.md — ease-*-back/overshoot and animation-fatigue tells to inoculate against.
• doctrine/references/wcag-2.2-criteria.md — accessibility floor: 2.3.3 (reduced motion), 2.3.1 (≤3 flashes/s), 1.4.1 (never colour-alone), 2.5.8 (target size), 4.1.2 (state exposed to AT).