The 4 Tones of Alert Messages and Notifications
Designing intuitive feedback
Interfaces and users communicate with each other through input and output. Input is where the user enters information into the system through a form or clicks a button. Output is where the system displays alert messages and notifications in response to the user's actions.
Communicating with the user is not as simple as displaying information because there are different types of messages. The user needs to know each message's tone so they can react accordingly. Without conveying the tone, the user can fail to notice the message and disregard it as regular text on the screen.
Message Tones
There are four types of tones an alert message can have. Each is color-coordinated with an icon that users commonly associate with it.
Warning tone
Caution tone
Success tone
Information tone
It's important to include color-coordinated icons to convey the message's tone. Failing to include these icons leads to users misinterpreting or ignoring the notifications they get.