Interaction design

Interaction Design

Design natural interactions with clear feedback that gracefully handle all states. Covers user flows, micro-interactions, state transitions, and interface behavior patterns for web and mobile applications.

When to Use This Skill

• Designing interaction flows for new features (drag-and-drop, wizards, modals)
• Creating loading, empty, error, and success states
• Improving micro-interactions on forms, buttons, or navigation
• Designing undo/redo and recovery patterns for destructive actions
• Reviewing interaction clarity in multi-step flows
• Planning animation and transition behavior
• Designing accessible interaction patterns

Quick Reference

Task	Load reference
State patterns and micro-interactions	skills/interaction-design/references/state-patterns.md

Workflow

1. Map all states: What states can this element be in? (loading, empty, partial, full, error, success, disabled, offline)
2. Design feedback: How does the user know their action worked?
3. Handle errors: What happens when things go wrong? How do users recover?
4. Consider edge cases: Empty data, slow connections, partial failures, concurrent actions.
5. Add delight: Where can micro-interactions improve the experience without adding noise?

Domain Vocabulary

user flows, interaction patterns, micro-interactions, state transitions, feedback loops, error states, empty states, loading states, progressive disclosure, gesture design, affordances, haptic feedback, animation timing, skeleton screens

Guiding Questions

Ask these when designing any interaction:

1. "What is the natural interaction pattern here?"
2. "How do we provide feedback at each step?"
3. "What happens in error and edge cases?"

Capabilities

Interaction Patterns

• Natural gesture and input design (touch, mouse, keyboard)
• Multi-modal interaction design
• Voice and conversational UI patterns
• Accessibility-first interaction design

State Design

• Loading state optimization (skeleton screens, spinners, progress bars)
• Empty state design that guides users toward action
• Error state recovery patterns
• Success state celebration and next steps
• Offline state and sync indication

Micro-interactions

• Button and input feedback (hover, focus, active, disabled)
• Form validation feedback timing
• Progress indicators and completion signals
• Notification and alert patterns
• Transition and animation design

Flow Design

• Multi-step wizard patterns
• Progressive disclosure implementation
• Modal and overlay interaction patterns
• Navigation and wayfinding
• Undo/redo and recovery patterns

Example Interactions

• "Design the interaction flow for a drag-and-drop file upload"
• "Create loading and error states for this API call"
• "Improve the micro-interactions on this form"
• "Design an undo pattern for destructive actions"
• "Review this wizard flow for interaction clarity"