Term for when an interface unexpectedly updates its content and causes users to mis-click?
There is a frustrating situation that I've encountered in multiple places that is hard to describe, but the consequence is always the same; causing the user to mis-click what they meant, due to the application shifting the content when not expected.
For example, OSX has this issue with Spotlight search, Google Maps has this issue when typing into the search box, and iOS has this issue with recently used apps.
The symptoms always include...
- User does some action to trigger the application to show some content (types a partial query, opens a sub-menu, etc)
- The application presents the user with what appears to be final content (results of a search/query, a set of recently used files, etc)
- The application changing the results to something different, after a brief delay, without the using having done anything to prompt the change.
- The user clicking the wrong item because the update was not expected and done at a time when they thought the content was ready to use.
I don't think this is a latency issue. The issue is that the application misleads the user into thinking the interface is ready to use when it is not.
Is there a name for this issue?