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https://designnotes.blog.gov.uk/2013/11/14/transaction-status-messages/

Transaction status messages

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Experimental

Page showing a notice under the heading saying 'Downtime notice: this service will be offline from 2.00-5.00am on 5th Sept'

Page showing a message under the heading saying 'Currently unavailable: This service will be back online at 5.00am on 5th Sept.' Also has a link saying 'Other ways to apply'.

Some exploration from a while back into how we might notify users of upcoming and current downtime for a given service.

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2 comments

  1. Comment by John Beale posted on

    Brilliant ot see design thinking posted up like this, really interesting.

    Couple of thoughts: for some transactions, such as this one, I wonder what the likelihood is that you'd visit before you actually want to complete the task? If it's unlikely, then would a message about a future downtime be useful/relevant enough to warrant such a prominent position?

    To me, the icon is a bit puzzling - red suggests 'Stop!', but it aso seems to be a tick (rather than a cross) suggesting 'OK''.

    The message is clear and helpful, but would be nice if it said 'sorry' perhaps?

    • Replies to John Beale>

      Comment by Guy Moorhouse posted on

      Hi John,
      Thanks for your comment.

      Good point about whether users would actually visit a transaction before they'd want to complete a task. There are scenarios where this would be useful I think though.

      For example if the service were due to be offline in five or ten minutes time, it would be a good indicator that it is not wise to start now.

      Completely agree with the icon/s. This is all a bit rough at his stage and would definitely need work if we used this pattern — the graphic is meant to represent a clock face, but that's not very clear at the moment.