The 3 Types of UI Alerts and How to Use Them

Contextual use cases for alerts

What's the right alert message to use for your app? It's crucial to pick the right, or you'll hurt the user experience. There are three types of alert messages you can choose.

• Banner Alert

• Modal Alert

• Toast Alert

Personal preference should never decide which one you choose. What determines which alert type is the most appropriate to use is context.

Banner Alert

A banner alert is displayed at the top of the screen as a static, global notification to all your users and does not require immediate attention. Use it whenever you need users to know something important related to the system but don't need them to act immediately.

Don't use this alert in response to an individual user’s actions. Treat it like a global notice to your entire user base about the system. You can make it appear persistently to prevent users from ignoring it. However, users should be able to dismiss it by clicking the corner ‘X’ icon.