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Agent Status & Activity UI Patterns(ASP)
Interface elements showing real-time agent activities, thinking states, and operational status for user awareness
Complexity: mediumUI/UX & Human-AI Interaction
🎯 30-Second Overview
Pattern: Real-time visual indicators showing agent activities and operational status
Why: Users need transparency about agent progress to build trust and know when intervention is needed
Key Insight: Show not just that agent is working, but specifically what it's doing and how long it might take
⚡ Quick Implementation
1Status States:Define thinking, processing, waiting, completed states
2Visual Indicators:Animated icons, progress bars, and status badges
3Real-time Updates:WebSocket or polling for live status changes
4Progress Tracking:Show percentage complete and time estimates
5Activity Logs:Timestamped history of agent actions
Example: Thinking 🧠 → Processing ⚙️ → Searching 🔍 → Completed ✅
📋 Do's & Don'ts
✅Show status updates within 100ms of state changes
✅Use consistent icons and animations across all states
✅Provide meaningful descriptions of current activities
✅Display progress bars for long-running tasks
✅Include estimated completion times when possible
❌Use generic "loading" states without context
❌Show rapid status flickering or jumpy animations
❌Hide critical error states from the user
❌Leave users guessing what the agent is doing
❌Overwhelm with too many simultaneous status indicators
🚦 When to Use
Use When
- • Long-running agent tasks (>2 seconds)
- • Multi-step workflows with dependencies
- • Background processing tasks
- • Users need progress visibility
Avoid When
- • Instant responses (<500ms)
- • Simple confirmation actions
- • Static information displays
- • Single-step operations
📊 Key Metrics
Status Clarity
User understanding of agent activity
Update Latency
Time between state change and UI update
Progress Accuracy
Estimation vs actual completion time
User Interruptions
Frequency of unnecessary user interventions
Error Recovery
Success rate of handling failed states
Trust Building
User confidence in agent reliability
💡 Top Use Cases
Document Processing: Show parsing → analysis → summarization → completion stages
Data Analysis: Display loading → processing → calculating → visualizing status
Search Operations: Indicate querying → filtering → ranking → presenting results
Background Tasks: Monitor email sync, backup, or cleanup operations
Multi-Agent Systems: Track status of multiple agents working in parallel
References & Further Reading
Deepen your understanding with these curated resources
Contribute to this collection
Know a great resource? Submit a pull request to add it.
⚡
Agent Status & Activity UI Patterns(ASP)
Interface elements showing real-time agent activities, thinking states, and operational status for user awareness
Complexity: mediumUI/UX & Human-AI Interaction
🎯 30-Second Overview
Pattern: Real-time visual indicators showing agent activities and operational status
Why: Users need transparency about agent progress to build trust and know when intervention is needed
Key Insight: Show not just that agent is working, but specifically what it's doing and how long it might take
⚡ Quick Implementation
1Status States:Define thinking, processing, waiting, completed states
2Visual Indicators:Animated icons, progress bars, and status badges
3Real-time Updates:WebSocket or polling for live status changes
4Progress Tracking:Show percentage complete and time estimates
5Activity Logs:Timestamped history of agent actions
Example: Thinking 🧠 → Processing ⚙️ → Searching 🔍 → Completed ✅
📋 Do's & Don'ts
✅Show status updates within 100ms of state changes
✅Use consistent icons and animations across all states
✅Provide meaningful descriptions of current activities
✅Display progress bars for long-running tasks
✅Include estimated completion times when possible
❌Use generic "loading" states without context
❌Show rapid status flickering or jumpy animations
❌Hide critical error states from the user
❌Leave users guessing what the agent is doing
❌Overwhelm with too many simultaneous status indicators
🚦 When to Use
Use When
- • Long-running agent tasks (>2 seconds)
- • Multi-step workflows with dependencies
- • Background processing tasks
- • Users need progress visibility
Avoid When
- • Instant responses (<500ms)
- • Simple confirmation actions
- • Static information displays
- • Single-step operations
📊 Key Metrics
Status Clarity
User understanding of agent activity
Update Latency
Time between state change and UI update
Progress Accuracy
Estimation vs actual completion time
User Interruptions
Frequency of unnecessary user interventions
Error Recovery
Success rate of handling failed states
Trust Building
User confidence in agent reliability
💡 Top Use Cases
Document Processing: Show parsing → analysis → summarization → completion stages
Data Analysis: Display loading → processing → calculating → visualizing status
Search Operations: Indicate querying → filtering → ranking → presenting results
Background Tasks: Monitor email sync, backup, or cleanup operations
Multi-Agent Systems: Track status of multiple agents working in parallel
References & Further Reading
Deepen your understanding with these curated resources
Contribute to this collection
Know a great resource? Submit a pull request to add it.