The Reality of Distraction
Distractions are as inevitable as, I guess Thanos, and if that means nothing to you, as inevitable as say, eating food. It’s gonna happen, whether you want it to or not.
Whether you’re mid-task, get a phone call or a tap on the shoulder. When you return to what you were was doing, the interface can greet us with a blank slate, or worse, an error message telling us our session has expired.
The reality is that users are constantly interrupted. Whether it’s notifications, multitasking, or needing to take 30 mins to make a single decision (no? just me?), expecting your user’s unbroken attention is unrealistic. Yet many interfaces are designed as if users will give them their complete, uninterrupted focus.
Why Designing for Interruption Matters
For me key culprits for losing progress are usually sign up flows to secure services such as banks.
App banks like Monzo and Starling have the entire sign up in a directed user flow in-app. If you take too long to perform one step - maybe you can’t find somewhere to take an ID photo and have to wait for someone to leave a room, or for you to get home, often you have to start the whole sign-up process from the start.
- Users feel frustrated when they lose progress
- Anxiety about “did it save?” creates cognitive load
- Trust is built when systems remember and forgive
- Modern life demands context-switching, design should accommodate, not punish it
Lessons from Game Design
The way videogames handle interruptions has changed so much over the last 10/15 years that I can’t shake the idea that it’s potentially caused a lot of the user anxiety in the first place.
I’ve been playing Red Dead Redemption and the inability to save whenever I want is incredibly frustrating. Finding a safe house and a bed and saving feels incredibly labourious in 2025, even more so when you consider that the hardware this game was released on in didn’t have anything near the instant resume functionality consoles have now.
Instant Suspend/Resume
In 2017 Nintendo released the Switch, and with it the ability to sleep and wake the console while games were running, without having to save at all.
This UX was incredible for gamers, the ability to play, be interrupted, and not even have to ensure you’d saved and you’re right back to where you were instantly, whenever you were ready to resume. Insane.
What Games Teach Us
- Aggressive auto-saving removes anxiety
- Visual/audio cues confirm actions without interrupting flow
- Instant suspend/resume states preserve context
- Don’t punish players for stepping away
Design Patterns for Interruption-Friendly UX
1. Persistent Session State
- Save form inputs automatically (drafts, progress)
- Preserve scroll position and filters
- Remember where users were in a multi-step process
- Examples: Gmail’s draft saving, e-commerce cart persistence
2. Forgiving Time Windows
- Generous session timeouts (or none at all for appropriate contexts)
- Warning before expiring sessions with option to extend
- Don’t punish users for taking their time
- Example: Banking apps with warning before logout
3. Clear Progress Indicators
- Show users exactly where they are in a process
- Breadcrumbs and step indicators
- “Pick up where you left off” sections
- Example: Netflix’s “Continue Watching” button
4. Contextual Re-entry
- When users return, show them what they were doing
- Offer to resume or start fresh
- Don’t make users figure out what happened
- Example: The Witcher 3 ‘Story up until now’ as the game loads
5. Graceful Error Handling
- If something fails, preserve user input
- Offer recovery options, not just error messages
- Example: “We couldn’t process your payment, but your cart is saved”
6. Visual Reassurance
- “Last saved at 3:45pm” timestamps
- Subtle auto-save indicators
- Confirmation without being intrusive
- Connect to your “Cosy UX” theme - reassurance builds comfort
Theme Park Parallels: Designing Physical Spaces for Interruption
Queue Design: Built for Distraction
- Disney queues are designed assuming people will chat, check phones, step out and rejoin, and manage their families
- Clear progress indicators (you can see how far you’ve moved)
- Entertainment and games, both physical and in app (Play Disney parks) keeps guests engaged even when distracted
Park Navigation: Pick Up Where You Left Off
- Maps and signage help you reorient after lunch
- Park apps remember your location and plans
- Cast members trained to help guests find their way
What This Teaches Digital Design
This teaches all designers to design for the reality of human behavior, not the ideal. The fact is that not all of your users will know what they’re doing at all times, some will need a helping hand.
That could be because they’ve deviated from their own plans becasue of an unscheduled interruption. Building in flexibility into your work makes it easier for users to reorient themselves and resume what they were doing.
Implementation Checklist
Questions to ask as you build your interfaces:
- What happens if a user gets interrupted mid-task?
- Is their progress saved automatically?
- Can they easily resume where they left off?
- Do we clearly communicate what’s been saved?
- What’s our session timeout? Is it generous enough?
- Do error states preserve user input?
- Can users navigate back to where they were?
- Have we tested interruption scenarios (phone calls, app switching, browser tabs)?
Design for humans
Look, designing for interruption isn’t just about technical stuff, it’s about making sure what you’ve made is usable by humans. The cosiest of Cosy UX is the one that welcomes you back to pay bills in your banking app, after 3 short hours looking up famous elephants on Wikipedia.