HAAM Labs · Beta Feature
IDDB: the interaction design database
A living table of interaction principles, human psychology, product examples, risk levels, and ethical design reads. Built to show that interaction design includes software, architecture, AI agents, public infrastructure, physical products, and safety-critical systems.
Definition
What counts as interaction design?
Interaction design is the shaping of actions, feedback, timing, consent, risk, and recovery between people and systems. The system can be a screen, a building, a city service, a control room, or an AI agent.
Software interfaces
Buttons, forms, navigation, onboarding, AI prompts, checkout flows, dashboards, alerts, and recovery states.
Physical environments
Doors, signage, turnstiles, seat maps, traffic crossings, museum routes, event queues, and emergency exits.
Safety-critical systems
Control rooms, medical triage, cockpit alerts, industrial monitoring, public warnings, and escalation procedures.
Behavior systems
Streaks, defaults, recommendations, permissions, social proof, scarcity cues, trust signals, and decision friction.
Data model
One table for stories, psychology, products, and risk
Each record connects the behavior being designed, the human mechanism behind it, where it appears in the world, how risky it is, and how HAAM would evaluate it.
- Interaction principle
- Human psychology
- Product or system example
- Risk level
- Ethical stance
- HAAM design interpretation
Database
18 starter records for the beta
Search across interaction names, psychology, domains, systems, examples, risk levels, and HAAM interpretation. Filter by risk, domain, or ethical stance.
Showing 18 of 18 interaction records.
| Interaction | Human mechanism | System example | Risk | HAAM read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Undo send SoftwareFinance | Error recovery People feel safer when mistakes are reversible for a short window. | Email, messaging, publishing, payment review flows A sent message can be recalled for a few seconds before it becomes final. The interface turns panic into a short recovery loop instead of making every click feel permanent. | MediumSupportive | Use delayed finality for irreversible actions, then make the time window and final state obvious. |
Transfer confirmation FinancePublic services | Explicit commitment Loss aversion makes people double-check high-value actions when consequences are visible. | Bank transfers, tax payments, invoicing, business registries Recipient, amount, fees, date, and legal consequences are shown before the final submit action. The design slows the user down at the moment where speed would create financial or legal risk. | HighSupportive | Add friction only at the point of real consequence, not across the whole journey. |
Streaks and daily loops EducationHealthSoftware | Commitment feedback Visible continuity can turn repeated behavior into identity and social pressure. | Language learning, fitness, meditation, productivity apps A daily counter rewards continued use and warns before the streak breaks. A simple number makes absence visible, which can motivate learning or create guilt. | MediumAmbiguous | Design recovery days, pauses, and humane failure states before optimizing retention. |
Default settings SoftwareCommercePublic services | Choice architecture Status quo bias makes preselected options unusually powerful. | Cookie banners, privacy controls, subscription renewal, notification settings The default path chooses what data is shared, what is subscribed, or what remains visible. Most users accept the path already arranged for them, especially under time pressure. | HighManipulative risk | Defaults should protect the user and match the promise made in the interface copy. |
Inline validation SoftwareFinanceHealthPublic services | Recognition over recall Specific, local feedback reduces cognitive load and frustration. | Forms, onboarding, checkout, healthcare portals, government applications A field explains what is wrong and how to fix it beside the failed input. The user does not need to guess what failed after submitting a long form. | MediumSupportive | Pair validation with copy, accessibility semantics, keyboard focus, and recovery paths. |
Progress feedback CommerceMobilitySoftwarePublic services | System status visibility Uncertainty feels shorter when people understand where they are in a process. | Delivery tracking, ride hailing, permit applications, onboarding, support tickets Steps show what has happened, what is happening now, and what remains. Waiting becomes easier when the interface gives time, state, and accountability. | LowSupportive | Show provenance and timestamps where status affects trust or safety. |
Emergency exit affordance ArchitectureSafety-critical systemsCivic infrastructure | Immediate recognizability Under stress, people rely on visible cues and practiced motor patterns. | Buildings, transit stations, venues, industrial facilities Door hardware, lighting, signage, and route layout communicate escape without reading long instructions. Interaction design becomes life safety when people must act fast with limited attention. | CriticalSupportive | Treat physical environments as interfaces, especially where panic or crowd behavior changes cognition. |
Alarm prioritization Safety-critical systemsPhysical products | Attention management Too many simultaneous warnings create alarm fatigue and decision paralysis. | Nuclear plants, aircraft cockpits, intensive care units, industrial control rooms Warnings are grouped by severity, dependency, and operator action instead of arriving as equal noise. The interface decides what deserves human attention when every second matters. | CriticalSupportive | Design escalation, suppression, audit trails, and calm defaults before adding more alerts. |
AI confidence display AIHealthFinancePublic services | Calibrated trust People over-trust fluent answers unless uncertainty and evidence are made visible. | AI copilots, decision support, search assistants, agents The output separates answer, evidence, uncertainty, missing data, and suggested next checks. A confident interface can make weak evidence feel stronger than it is. | HighSupportive | Make uncertainty a first-class UI object, especially in regulated or high-consequence domains. |
Infinite scroll SoftwareCommerceEducation | Continuous feed Variable rewards keep attention moving because the next item might be better. | Social feeds, marketplaces, media apps, discovery pages New content appears automatically as the user reaches the end of the current set. The absence of a stopping point changes browsing into a loop. | MediumManipulative risk | Use load-more boundaries, session cues, and purposeful endings when wellbeing or task completion matters. |
One-tap payment CommerceFinanceSoftware | Friction compression Reduced effort increases completion, especially when trust is already established. | Mobile wallets, subscriptions, in-app purchases, checkout Stored credentials and biometric confirmation turn purchase intent into a single short action. A payment interaction can feel safe, magical, or dangerously fast depending on context. | HighAmbiguous | Compress routine purchases, then expand confirmation for unusual amounts, new recipients, or recurring commitments. |
Live rerouting MobilityCivic infrastructureSoftware | Adaptive guidance People outsource spatial decisions when feedback arrives in time and feels reliable. | Navigation, logistics, emergency response, public transport apps The route changes when traffic, closures, weather, or missed turns affect the journey. The product becomes a temporary authority over movement through the city. | HighSupportive | Explain why a route changed when trust, safety, or accessibility is affected. |
Permission prompt timing SoftwareAIHealth | Contextual consent People understand requests better when the benefit and timing are clear. | Camera, location, contacts, health data, microphone, notification permissions The app asks for access after the user chooses a feature that requires it. Consent feels different when it appears as a response to intent instead of a demand at launch. | HighSupportive | Tie permission requests to user goals and provide useful fallback paths when access is declined. |
Social proof counters CommerceSoftwarePublic services | Popularity signal People infer value and safety from visible behavior by others. | Booking pages, marketplaces, event platforms, petition tools The interface shows how many people bought, saved, joined, reviewed, or are viewing now. A crowd signal can help decision-making or manufacture urgency. | MediumManipulative risk | Use social signals only when they are accurate, sourced, and not pretending to be scarcity. |
Accessible seat selection MobilityArchitectureCommercePublic services | Inclusive spatial choice People need agency over access needs without exposing private details unnecessarily. | Theaters, airlines, trains, classrooms, public venues Seat maps identify wheelchair spaces, companion seats, step-free routes, sightlines, and sensory notes. The map becomes a promise about the real physical experience, not just a booking widget. | HighSupportive | Connect digital seat maps to verified venue data and clear correction workflows. |
Turnstile flow ArchitectureMobilityCivic infrastructurePhysical products | Rhythm and throughput Small physical cues coordinate people without requiring verbal instruction. | Metro stations, events, museums, offices, border control Lights, sound, gate movement, card reader position, and lane layout guide entry speed. A physical interaction choreographs crowds and reveals whether a system respects human tempo. | HighSupportive | Study bottlenecks as interaction failures, not only capacity problems. |
Health triage questionnaire HealthAIPublic services | Structured disclosure People share more accurately when questions are specific, staged, and nonjudgmental. | Telemedicine, emergency intake, symptom checkers, insurance triage The system asks symptoms, duration, severity, red flags, and context before routing care. The interaction converts messy personal experience into a decision pathway. | CriticalSupportive | Design for escalation, human handoff, accessibility, and clear limits of automated advice. |
Empty-state guidance SoftwareAICommerceEducation | First action invitation People need a next step when an interface has no content yet. | Dashboards, project tools, CRMs, analytics, AI workspaces An empty dashboard explains what belongs here and offers the first useful action. A blank screen can feel broken, while a good empty state makes the product teach itself. | LowSupportive | Use empty states to teach the mental model, not as decorative filler. |
Why this belongs on HAAM
A behavior library, not only a pattern library
The existing interaction design library can explain popular affordances. IDDB adds the heavier layer: consequence, psychology, ethics, and cross-domain examples.
Explain interaction design
Show that interaction design is not only app screens. It is the design of behavior, timing, feedback, control, trust, and consequence.
Audit product decisions
Map a product surface into entries and identify where friction, consent, feedback, or reversibility need stronger design.
Build an AI-visible knowledge asset
Turn HAAM judgment into structured, reusable, searchable content that can later power articles, sales pages, tools, and agents.