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Messages

A good messaging mechanism is essential for keeping people informed and engaged within a product.

The purpose of any communication should be to provide relevant information, updates and important notices at specific times and in specific contexts.

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Remember that your message will interrupt and may distract people from their tasks. Therefore, avoid adding a new message to the product as much as possible.

Steps to designing an effective message​

1. Purpose of the message​

Before creating a new communication in the product, ensure that your message meets at least one of these purposes:

  • Inform about processes and activities: communications can inform about the status of a process running in the background or provide feedback on actions performed in the system.
  • Engage and retain users: personalized and targeted messages keep users engaged and encourage them to return to the product or perform a specific task within it.
  • Facilitate task completion: contextualized and timely messages can help people perform tasks more efficiently and with less cognitive effort.
  • Personalize the user experience: messages can be personalized based on people's preferences and behaviors, which allows for more relevant and targeted communication. This helps create a personalized experience and increases user satisfaction.

2. Communication principles​

Once you know the objective of your message, ensure it meets these three principles:

  • Relevance: messages must be related to the task being performed and always appropriate to the context of use.

    Avoid interrupting a task with messages about other topics.

  • Timeliness: information must be displayed according to its urgency relative to the context and/or the task being performed.

    Avoid creating a feeling of urgency with messages that are not urgent. If everything is urgent, nothing is urgent.

  • Information: must provide clear, concise information and always offer an alternative or next step.

    Avoid vague messages that do not inform the problem or offer a way to resolve it.

3. Choice of components​

Choosing suitable components can influence the performance and effectiveness of your communication.

Case 1: Immediate feedback​

If your communication is immediate feedback from the system related to an action taken by the person, prefer to use:

  • Toast: in case of successful feedback.

    Example: "Your data has been sent"

  • Message or Snackbar: in case of attention or error.

    Example: "Please check the information and try again"

Case 2: Incident or system failure​

If your communication refers to an incident or system failure that impacts the use of the product, prefer the use of:

  • Alert: in cases of moderate incidents, use the yellow tone and, in cases of serious incidents, the red tone.

    Example: "RD Station Marketing is experiencing instability. Find out more at status.rdstation.com"

Case 3: Other matters​

If your communication is about other topics, such as promoting a plan, an event, a new feature, or a walkthrough, consider using:

  • Banner: used to promote actions unrelated to the operation of the product, such as promotions, events, new plans or research (this component is not yet available in the design system)
  • Modal: used to completely interrupt a task and draw attention to extremely relevant information or action in a given context
  • Snackbar: can be used at the top of the page for important communications about functionality use or instigating relevant actions
  • Popover: floating element used to communicate new elements or new functionality on a screen or flow
  • Stickybar: used for promotional messages about changes in plans, events or communications unrelated to the operation of the product (this component is not yet available in the design system).

4. Implementation criteria​

All communications, except feedback and incident communications, must meet the implementation criteria:

  • Start and end date of display: your message must have a date to start being displayed and a date to stop being displayed. No message should remain on the product indefinitely. If this is the case, consider creating a fixed element in the interface.
  • User segmentation: establish relevant criteria for sending messages, such as profile, behaviors, location to ensure that your message is not sent to an audience you do not want. Avoid sending messages to everyone.
  • Instrumentation: monitor the performance of your communications by measuring interactions with your message. Remember that we need this data to know if that channel is being effective for the company's objectives.
  • Cache system: store people's interactions with your messages and ensure that they can be closed and, after that, they do not appear again for a certain period. Avoid cluttering the screen with messages.
  • Communication Ruler: Make sure that the flows where your message will appear are not displaying other messages by consulting the Product Communication Ruler. Avoid “banner blindness.”
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This documentation does not cover communications made through tools external to the product, such as Intercom and similar. Check the Communication Rule and ensure that your message does not harm your audience's experience.