Notifications

Notifications alert users to the state of a form or page. In forms, notifications can appear at the top of the form or in line with form fields and can highlight successful submissions, errors that need to be corrected, or details to know before submitting the form. When used on a page, notifications can call out important information about the content (including if the content is still loading).

Types

Types of notifications include success, warning, error, and in-progress.

Success notification

The success notification is for displaying when an operation has run as expected, such as returning the number of results in a search.

11 results

HTML code snippet

<div class="m-notification
            m-notification__visible
            m-notification__success">
    {% include icons/approved-round.svg %}
    <div class="m-notification_content">
        <div class="h4 m-notification_message">11 results</div>
    </div>
</div>

Specs

  • Border: 2 px, CFPB Green (#20aa3f)
  • Icon: 18 px, CFPB Green (#20aa3f)
  • Background color: Green 10 (#f0f8eb)
  • Success icon and message should always appear below input field.

Success notification (field-level)

HTML code snippet

<div class="m-form-field m-form-field__success">
    <label class="a-label a-label__heading" for="form-input-success">Input label</label>
    <input class="a-text-input a-text-input__success" type="text" placeholder="Placeholder text" id="form-input-success" aria-describedby="form-input-success_message">
    <div class="a-form-alert a-form-alert__success" id="form-input-success_message" role="alert">
        {% include icons/approved-round.svg %}
        <span class="a-form-alert_text">
            This is an inline alert with a success state.
        </span>
    </div>
</div>

Specs

  • Border: 2 px, CFPB Green (#20aa3f)
  • Minicon: 18 px, CFPB Green (#20aa3f)
  • Success minicon and message should always appear below input field

Warning notification

The warning notification displays when an operation has run as expected, but doesn’t have the expected results, such as a search that returned no results.

This notification can also be used to display additional critical information to a user before they submit a form, such as how their data will be used and protected or a reminder that they can’t edit their responses after submitting.

No results found.

HTML code snippet

<div class="m-notification
            m-notification__visible
            m-notification__warning">
    {% include icons/warning-round.svg %}
    <div class="m-notification_content">
        <div class="h4 m-notification_message">No results found.</div>
    </div>
</div>

Specs

  • Border: 2 px, Gold (#ff9e1b)
  • Background: Gold 10 (#fff6ec)
  • Minicon: 18px, Gold (#ff9e1b)

Warning notification (field-level)

HTML code snippet

<div class="m-form-field m-form-field__warning">
    <label class="a-label a-label__heading" for="form-input-warning">Input label</label>
    <input class="a-text-input a-text-input__warning" type="text" placeholder="Placeholder text" id="form-input-warning" aria-describedby="form-input-warning_message">
    <div class="a-form-alert a-form-alert__warning" id="form-input-warning_message" role="alert">
        {% include icons/warning-round.svg %}
        <span class="a-form-alert_text">
            This is an inline alert with a warning state.
        </span>
    </div>
</div>

Specs

  • Border: 2 px, Gold (#ff9e1b)
  • Minicon: 18 px, Gold (#ff9e1b)
  • Warning minicon and message should always appear below input field

Error notification

The error notification displays when an operation has not run as expected and encounters an error. Use after validating on the server side to call out input errors preventing form submission.

Page not found.

HTML code snippet

<div class="m-notification
            m-notification__visible
            m-notification__error">
    {% include icons/error-round.svg %}
    <div class="m-notification_content">
        <div class="h4 m-notification_message">Page not found.</div>
    </div>
</div>

Implementation details

  • For screen reader accessibility, include anchor links to the fields that need correction.

  • Place form-level alerts below the form title.

  • For field level notifications, the error minicon and message should always appear below the input field.

Specs

  • Border: 2 px, Red (#d14124)
  • Background: Red 10 (#fbefec)
  • Minicon: 18px, Red (#d14124)

Error notification (field-level)

HTML code snippet

<div class="m-form-field m-form-field__error">
    <label class="a-label a-label__heading" for="form-input-error">Input label</label>
    <input class="a-text-input a-text-input__error" type="text" placeholder="Placeholder text" id="form-input-error" aria-describedby="form-input-error_message">
    <div class="a-form-alert a-form-alert__error" id="form-input-error_message" role="alert">
        {% include icons/error-round.svg %}
        <span class="a-form-alert_text">
            This is an inline alert with an error state.
        </span>
    </div>
</div>

Specs

  • Border: 2 px, Red (#d14124)
  • Minicon: 18 px, Red (#d14124)

In-progress notification

The in-progress notification displays when something is happening on the page, such as a page loading notification as search results are found. Use animated minicons to reassure the user that an action is functioning as intended.

The page is loading…

HTML code snippet

<div class="m-notification
            m-notification__visible">
    {% include icons/updating.svg %}
    <div class="m-notification_content">
        <div class="h4 m-notification_message">The page is loading…</div>
    </div>
</div>

Default (base) notification

The default notification creates the base for the message that is often hidden and empty, but is modified by scripting in production to update the state and message based on user input.

If your notification requires further explanation, include it in a paragraph following the main message.

Notifications are hidden by default; you can toggle their visibility by adding or removing the m-notification__visible class to the base element.

A default notification

A default notification

You can also add an explanation to the notification.


A default notification

This is the explanation of the notification.

HTML code snippet

<div class="m-notification
            m-notification__visible">
    {% include icons/information-round.svg %}
    <div class="m-notification_content">
        <div class="h4 m-notification_message">A default notification</div>
    </div>
</div>

<br>

<div class="m-notification
            m-notification__visible">
    {% include icons/information-round.svg %}
    <div class="m-notification_content">
        <div class="h4 m-notification_message">A default notification</div>
        <p class="m-notification_explanation">
            You can also add an explanation to the notification.
        </p>
    </div>
</div>

<br>

<div class="m-notification
            m-notification__visible">
    {% include icons/information-round.svg %}
    <div class="m-notification_content">
        <div class="h4 m-notification_message">A default notification</div>
        <p class="m-notification_explanation">
            This is the explanation of the notification.
        </p>
        <ul class="m-list m-list__links">
            <li class="m-list_item">
                <a class="m-list_link" href="/">
                    This is a link below the explanation
                </a>
            </li>
            <li class="m-list_item">
                <a class="m-list_link" href="/">
                    This is an external link {% include icons/external-link.svg %}
                </a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</div>

Implementation details

Notifications are hidden by default; you can toggle their visibility by adding or removing the m-notification__visible class to the base element.

If your notification requires links, include them below the message or explanation as a m-list unordered list.

Behavior

Placement

  • Form-level alerts should appear below the form title.

  • Field-level alerts (minicon and message) should always appear below the input field.

Validation

Where possible, display formatting errors immediately using client-side validation so the user doesn’t have to wait until submitting to see what went wrong (this is especially frustrating if the information the user enters the first time around is not cached on submit and they have to fill out all the fields again from scratch). If letters are entered in a date field, if an email address is missing the “@” sign, let the user know right away by showing a field-level error on blur.

That said, it’s a good idea to always validate on the server side even if you use client-side validation for formatting checks. That’s because JavaScript validation may not work on all clients; JavaScript errors could occur no matter the client; and JS validation can easily be bypassed, which raises security concerns.

In general, the best practice for server-side validation is to mark errors with both form-level and field-level errors.

Accessibility

  • For screen reader accessibility, form-level errors should include anchor links to the problem field in question.
  • Place form-level alerts below the form title.
  • In general, use distinct icons, contrasting colors, prominent placement, and text to indicate errors. Don’t rely on just one method, as users can have many different accessibility needs (color blind users, visually impaired users, users with motor control issues, etc.).
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