Microinteractions
A model that breaks each single-task moment (setting an alarm, liking a post, muting the phone) into four parts: trigger, rules, feedback, and loops and modes.
What problem it addresses
Small details are often left for last or not designed at all, yet people use them every day; the model helps design them with the same care as a whole screen.
Components
Trigger
What starts the microinteraction: an action by the person, such as pressing a switch, or a system condition, such as receiving a message.
Rules
What can and cannot happen once it starts: the logic that decides the outcome.
Feedback
What the person sees, hears or feels to understand what happened: a visual change, a sound or a vibration.
Loops and modes
How it behaves over time (repeating, expiring, changing after several uses) and which settings change how it works.
How it works
Inventory the small moments of the product that deserve their own design.
Breakdown each moment split into trigger, rules, feedback, and loops and modes.
Polish clear, consistent details that make the product easier to understand.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Go through the four parts when designing a control or a setting so you do not leave undecided what starts it, what it does and how it shows.
Avoid
Dressing every detail with animation and sound; the feedback should match what happened.
Don’t fall for it
It is a model born from practice, without empirical validation: use it to design and review, not to measure.
Connections
Related to
Authors and works
- 2013
Dan Saffer
Named microinteractions and proposed breaking them into four parts to design them one by one.
Sources
Original sources
- Saffer, D. (2013). Microinteractions: Designing with details. O'Reilly Media. View source: Saffer, D. (2013)
Last reviewed: