Context / Tools / Evals / Safety / 03
Streaming and uncertain UX
Communicate latency, sources, confidence, interruption, editing, retry, and graceful failure.
Before you begin
By the end, you can…
- Design streaming and latency feedback
- Keep users in control of generated work
- Communicate uncertainty without false precision
01 / Understand
Waiting is part of the interface
AI responses may take seconds and can fail after partial output. Show that work started, allow cancellation, preserve the user’s input, and distinguish waiting, streaming, tool use, completion, and failure.
Streaming improves perceived speed but can expose unverified claims as they arrive. Reserve consequential actions until validation completes and make final status clear.
02 / Apply
Generated content needs agency
Support edit, retry, compare, cite, undo, and dismiss. Do not replace a user’s work without preserving the original. Explain sources and limitations close to the output.
Avoid decorative confidence scores. Communicate what evidence was used, what is missing, and which claims need review.
03 / Make
Your studio task
Make — Prototype streaming, stop, retry, edit, citation, and failure states before connecting a model.
- Storyboard idle, submitted, waiting, streaming, validating, success, stopped, and failure states.
- Add stop, retry, edit, and source inspection.
- Preserve the original input and any user edits.
- Test a slow response, partial failure, and unsupported claim.
A user always knows what is happening, what is uncertain, and what control remains theirs.
04 / Check