Meanwhile, GitHub is removing Toasts from Primer, their design system.[1] They’re next to impossible to implement in a way that retains accessibility across all needs, and if you try to restrict their usage to places where accessibility doesn’t matter so much (simple ephemeral confirmations) people misuse them anyway.
It’s notable that accessibility isn’t mentioned once in this post, or, in fact, in the component’s documentation.
Toasts are a great way to lose information. They are a terrible design and should not be used. They distract the user, are not dense with information, and provide no value. If a message is important enough for the user to read, it should be a dialog box.
I’m far from a UX designer but whenever I use something with toasts I feel like I don’t notice them pop up in my periphery. I think it would be better if the confirmation for an action I did just showed up wherever I performed that action (like a button changing state to a spinner and then either an error or a confirmation)
Despite being the first point made, i feel that it’s likely the name didn’t contribute to its success, and possibly worked against it. It’s not discoverable and it doesn’t tell the reader much of anything. It’s the kind of name you get away with when your product is established by other means.
Was really hoping it was an article about making electronics out of fried bread products. "With electrodes wired to our margarine covered breadboard we were able to accomplish ... "
I always used flash messages instead of toasts. I'm not sure if flash is the right term-- it's the inline message next to or above the form/element that changed or was submitted.
I thought flashes were easier to see (not only for people with special needs). As it turns out, when you make things more accessible, everyone wins.
I went through a phase where I used toasts because it felt like everyone was using them and my product/design was "old". I happily went back to flash messages when I came back to my senses.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 38.8 ms ] threadIt’s notable that accessibility isn’t mentioned once in this post, or, in fact, in the component’s documentation.
[1] https://primer.style/accessibility/toasts/
Sigh. So much of modern "UX design" seems to be lured by this siren call :(
Why do all these packages have so many downloads? Are all the CI / CD routines always downloading a fresh copy and not caching?
- macOS screenshots
- Linear toasts after every action (with common actions on them such as copy link)
I thought flashes were easier to see (not only for people with special needs). As it turns out, when you make things more accessible, everyone wins.
I went through a phase where I used toasts because it felt like everyone was using them and my product/design was "old". I happily went back to flash messages when I came back to my senses.