What is Feedback in Good Product Design and User Experience?
The word ‘feedback’ finds its origin in electrical science from the early 20th century.
It is defined as the return to input of a part of the output of a machine, system, or process. It was later adopted in the realm of technology (specifically system controls) as ‘positive feedback’ and ‘negative feedback.’ Feedback can then be defined as ‘communicating the result of a user’s action.’
We have all spent minutes that felt like hours downloading heavy files or movies off the internet. There are times when the download bar refuses to budge. This leads to cursing the internet speed while some even start believing the download bar is a farce made to test our patience! But this bar is in its very frustrating existence — feedback!! It communicates, in real-time, the percentage of the file that is being downloaded. It ensures the user has clarity by showing the result of our action and what has been accomplished with the help of the bar.
Feedback is closely related to the principle of discoverability. It comes in many forms — visual, tactile, audio, and more. An example of auditory and visual feedback is an elevator. Visual feedback shows which floor’s button has been pressed by highlighting it. It also shows continuous feedback about the floors travelled once the elevator starts moving, whether one is travelling at a leisurely pace or an urgent one. Thus, it gives us an estimate of the time required. The auditory feedback occurs as a pinging sound or automated voiceover upon reaching the desired floor. Hence, feedback communicates the results of any interaction by making it both visible and understandable for the user. Its function is to give the user a signal that they have succeeded or failed at performing a task.
According to David Hogue, feedback should essentially be able to answer questions across four categories:
- Location: Where am I?
- Current Status: What’s happening — and is it still happening?
- Future Status: What will happen next?
- Outcomes & Results: What just happened?
Hence, the key to good feedback and overall design experience is never to leave the user guessing about the consequence of their action. Feedback is an essential part of the human-machine relationship. It demands careful timing, emotion, and sensitivity towards the user’s psychology and needs.
Feedback can be linear or cyclic but is almost always immediate. If the delay in feedback is too long, we tend to lose interest or stop using the product midway. This leads to frustration and a waste of time and resources for the system and designers. Apart from being immediate, feedback also needs to be balanced. All of us urban creatures have used a microwave at some point. What have you used it for? I am sure the answer to this for most of you will be ‘heating food’. The strange thing is, it offers so much more than that — if you look closely you will see options for grilling, boiling, heating, baking, etc. But there will hardly be anyone who has used these functions. In fact, the term ‘microwave it’ has become synonymous with ‘heat it’.
A typical microwave comes with pre-loaded menus along with the timer, the start and the stop button. These pre-loaded menus are so vague that one hardly uses them. Thus, we end up using the microwave, a technological innovation, for the rudimentary purpose of heating food. That is not all. We even have to navigate the uncertain standards of a timer. Is one minute enough to heat the food? Maybe or maybe not? And if not, what do you do? Maybe microwave it for another minute? Hence, one ends up guessing the amount of time required to heat the food. The feedback in the microwave is the timer button/dial or indicator. It does not specify the temperature, a parameter for heat, in its feedback. The constant reminder in the form of beeping until the door is opened is another form of auditory feedback. This repeated feedback ensures that the result of the action performed by the user is communicated to the user. Thus, too little feedback might not have enough signifiers to tell the users what to do next, leading to confusion. On the other hand, too much feedback like the constant beeping might be overwhelming for the user.
Feedback is a planned initiative. Having too much or very little feedback can create dangerous situations in worst-case scenarios. But in regular cases, this might lead the user to stop using these products. Too many forms of feedback can confuse the user, but very few might lead to the user missing out on the information. The hierarchy of feedback also needs to be prioritised according to the urgency and importance of the communication. Feedback should not only get the user’s attention to inform them about what has happened. But it should be specific enough that one has all the information required for the next action, as might be the case in an emergency elevator ride!
About the Writer
Malika Vaidya is an architect and writer. She is the Co-Founder of Architecture Pulse, a blog that explores the intersection of architecture and society. She is a graduate of the Rachna Sansad’s Academy of Architecture (AoA), Mumbai. She has interned at One Habitat Studio and The Origin.
About the Editor
Vishwa Balani is an English Literature graduate from St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad and MS University, Baroda. She has been associated with CEPT University for two and a half years now where she has taught writing to students across various courses. Her tryst with language began very early in life and it has continued no matter which field she chooses to work in. She likes experimental writing but also believes in grammar, and the Oxford comma.
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