NAME
Persistent Cue — Reference
Description
A persistent cue directs the user's attention to a part of
the screen or user interface, indicates a particular state of an
object, or alerts the user about potentially serious situations.
There are three types of persistent cues:
Graphical cues (augmentations of existing
graphical elements)
Information provided in window information areas
Messages in secondary windows
In degraded environments (for instance, in a low-light environment
or if the user is visually impaired) persistent cues can be supplemented,
replaced, or augmented by cues in other sensory modalities, such
as sound.
When to Use
- Required
Provide a persistent cue to distinguish the state
of some object represented by an element in the user interface or
the status of some task that the user requested.
- Required
Provide a persistent cue to alert the user about
a potentially serious condition in the operating environment.
- Required
Provide a persistent cue to attract the user's attention
to some area of the interface.
- Recommended
Provide a persistent cue to inform the user about
features or behavior of the interface element with which the user
is interacting.
- Recommended
Provide a persistent cue when the user requests
help with the application or an element of the interface.
Guidelines
- Required
If the persistent cue is intended to alert the user,
supplement it with a warning signal.
- Required
If a persistent cue represents an internal state
that is changing, update the cue as the change happens. If the change
is a continuous change, update the cue continuously or at regular
intervals.
- Required
If a persistent cue blinks (for example, it turns
on and off repeatedly) use it only if the element it is on has input
focus or if the user must be made aware of a critical condition.
- Required
Do not design a new persistent cue to represent
a state that already has one defined for it.
- Required
If a persistent cue is associated with a task, display
the cue while the task is in progress and remove it when the task
is done.
- Recommended
If a task displays a persistent cue while it is
in progress and the task takes a short time (between 2 and 10 seconds),
use a special pointer as the persistent cue.
- Recommended
If a task displays a persistent cue while it is
in progress and the task takes an intermediate to long time (longer
than 10 seconds), use a message as the persistent cue.
- Recommended
If the element with a persistent cue associated
with it is moved, move the persistent cue along with the element.
- Recommended
If a persistent cue represents an internal state
of the application or operating environment that can change independently,
and if it changes such that the cue cannot be displayed, and your
application has determined that such a change has occurred, remove
the persistent cue.
- Recommended
Supplement the persistent cue with a warning signal
if the user might ignore the cue inadvertently.
- Recommended
If your application can determine that a persistent
cue is no longer needed, remove it.
- Recommended
Do not change the behavior of an element of the
interface just because a persistent cue has been associated with
it.
- Recommended
Do not design any element of the interface so that
it will always have the same persistent cue associated with it.
It should be possible for the application to show the element with
or without the persistent cue, depending on some user-modifiable
internal state.
- Recommended
If a persistent cue modifies the appearance of the
element it is on, design the cue so that it does not change the
size of the element. If this is not feasible, design the element
so that the size of the persistent cue is included in its size.
If neither option is feasible, use a message instead of a graphical
cue.
Essential Related Topics
For more information, see the Information and Message Areas (Area),
Message, and Warning Signal reference
pages.
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