| UI or UX | UI + UX - Live execution trace for an AI agent or automation run after work has started | UI + UX - Pre-execution preview of an AI agent's proposed multi-step plan, tools, data access, and expected outputs | UI + UX - Incremental generated-output surface that renders response chunks before final completion | UI + UX - Searchable and exportable record of system, user, or administrative events | UI + UX - Measurable system-operation progress indicator | UI + UX - Runtime checkpoint that pauses AI or automation until an eligible human authorizes the next step |
| UI guidance | Render an agent progress trace as a live, ordered run timeline with run ID, plan version, current step, queued steps, active tool or task, elapsed time, last event time, step status, blocked gates, retry state, and final outcome. | Render agent plan preview as a pre-run plan with objective, ordered steps, planned tools, data sources, permissions, assumptions, dependencies, approval gates, expected outputs, and controls to edit, approve, run, save, or cancel. | Render streamed output with a visible generation state, partial-answer label, stop control, final-complete state, and clear distinction between text that is still arriving and content that has passed final citation, safety, tool, or format checks. | Render activity logs as evidence-oriented records with event time, actor, action, object, source system, scope, result, and technical context such as IP address or location when available. | Show a labeled bar with a track, filled value, and nearby helper text that reports the measurable unit such as percent, bytes, rows, files, records, or stages. | Render a human approval gate as a paused automation checkpoint with the proposed action, tool or workflow step, triggering rule, risk level, payload snapshot, requester or agent, approver eligibility, timeout, and explicit approve, reject, edit, cancel, or bypass controls. |
| UX guidance | Use agent progress trace when an AI agent or automation has started multi-step work and users need to monitor progress, intervene on stalls or gates, understand partial completion, and know whether the reviewed plan is still being followed. | Use agent plan preview when users need to understand and shape what an AI agent will do before it starts calling tools, changing records, sending messages, spending budget, or making external side effects. | Use a streaming response when showing partial generated output helps users start reading or monitoring work before the model finishes, and when the product can explain that early chunks may still change, be filtered, or lack final sources. | Use activity log when users need to investigate, audit, verify, or troubleshoot actions across accounts, objects, systems, settings, or security boundaries. | Use a progress bar when the system can honestly report movement toward a known finish and users need to decide whether to wait, cancel, retry, continue elsewhere, or return later. | Use human approval gate when automation is ready to act but policy, risk, confidence, cost, access, publication, deployment, customer impact, or legal consequence requires a human decision before execution continues. |
| Good UI | An account research agent trace shows Run A-204, reviewed plan P-18, completed CRM lookup, active policy search, queued draft email, approval gate pending before send, elapsed time, and a View tool details control. | A sales assistant previews a six-step account-research plan with CRM lookup, web search, draft email, approval gate before send, estimated sources, and editable recipient scope. | A policy assistant shows Answer generating, streams paragraphs into a stable answer region, marks citations pending, exposes Stop generation, then changes to Complete when citations and safety checks finish. | An organization audit log table shows timestamp, actor, action, target object, app, IP address, result, and a Details drawer with before and after fields. | A document upload card says Uploading evidence.zip, shows 64%, 32 of 50 MB, a Cancel action, and keeps the rest of the form usable. | An AI support agent pauses before issuing a refund, shows the proposed amount, customer, policy match, confidence, source grounding, approver role, timeout, Approve refund, Edit amount, Reject, and Stop run controls. |
| Bad UI | A spinner says Working on it while an agent calls several tools with no step identity, elapsed time, blocked state, or recovery path. | The UI says I have a plan and immediately starts executing without showing steps, tools, data access, or external side effects. | A generated answer appears word by word with no partial label, no stop control, and a Copy button that looks ready before sources arrive. | A page titled Activity shows vague entries such as Changed settings with no actor, target, timestamp, or source. | A blue bar fills across the top of the page with no label, no percent, and no affected object. | A banner says Human approval needed but does not show the tool call, payload, approver, timeout, or resume consequence. |
| Good UX | A user watches the active step move from searching policies to drafting the email, opens the blocked permission item, grants access, and sees the run continue from the same step. | A manager removes the Send email step, narrows the data source to approved knowledge, approves the remaining plan, and sees execution start from the revised version. | A user sees the first-token state quickly, reads early outline bullets while the answer continues, stops generation after enough detail, and sees the result labelled Partial with Continue and Regenerate options. | An admin filters to failed SSO events, expands one entry, copies the event ID, exports the filtered range, and sees that records older than 180 days require a different archive. | A user uploads evidence.zip, sees progress move from 12% to 64%, cancels before commit, retries after a network error, and gets a completed receipt only after server processing succeeds. | A billing lead opens the paused refund gate, sees that the amount is under policy but source grounding is partial, edits the refund to the verified amount, approves, and the agent resumes only that step. |
| Bad UX | Users cannot tell whether the agent is stuck, waiting for approval, or finished because all states use the same animated progress label. | Users approve a plan that says Research account but the agent also updates the opportunity stage. | A user copies an early legal recommendation before the final paragraph reverses the conclusion after a tool result arrives. | A user marks a notification read and the corresponding activity evidence disappears from the only log. | A fake progress bar inches to 99% for minutes with no elapsed time, cancel, retry, or background option. | A human approves a stale agent action from email and the agent applies it to a different customer state. |
| Best fit | An agent or automation run has started and spans multiple steps, tools, gates, or side effects. | An AI agent or automation can show a proposed multi-step plan before execution. | Generated text or structured content can be read or monitored before completion. | Users need to inspect recorded user, admin, system, security, or integration events. | A system operation has a measurable total or bounded progress value. | An AI agent, workflow, deployment, or automation is ready to perform a high-impact step and must pause for human authorization. |
| Avoid when | Execution has not started and users need to inspect or edit a proposed plan. | The system cannot generate a reliable plan before execution. | Intermediate chunks may expose unsafe, private, or misleading content. | The goal is only to show a readable milestone history for one case or process. | Progress cannot be measured or would be guessed. | The action has already happened and users only need an audit log. |
| Required state | Run started state tied to run ID, plan version, objective, and user who started the run. | Draft plan state with objective, ordered steps, planned tools, and expected output. | Queued or receiving state before first output arrives. | Default log state with event records, result count, visible timezone, retention window, and permission scope. | Idle state before the operation starts. | Paused gate state with proposed action, payload snapshot, reason for gate, and run context. |
| Accessibility burden | Expose trace status, run ID, current step, elapsed time, blocked state, final outcome, and details availability as text. | Expose objective, plan version, step order, step status, tool, data access, side effect, and expected output as text. | Expose stream milestones such as started, still generating, stopped, failed, citation ready, and complete as status messages. | Use table or structured list semantics so actor, action, object, timestamp, result, and scope are perceivable together. | Provide an accessible name that identifies the operation and affected object. | Expose gate status, proposed action, target, payload summary, risk, approver rule, timeout, and current run state as text. |
| Common misuse | Using one spinner or vague Thinking label for a multi-step agent run. | Showing a vague plan summary while hiding planned tool calls, data access, and side effects. | Showing a blinking cursor with no state, stop control, or elapsed feedback. | Calling a social feed or notification drawer an activity log without event evidence. | Fabricating progress values just to make users feel movement. | Showing Approve without the exact action, payload, target, risk, or resume consequence. |