Use swipe action for the specific horizontal row gesture that reveals or commits item-level actions. Use touch gesture for the broader gesture contract, list view for row structure, action menu for explicit command access, undo for post-action recovery, and confirmation dialog for informed pre-action decisions.
Use swipe action for the specific horizontal row gesture that reveals or commits item-level actions. Use touch gesture for the broader gesture contract, list view for row structure, action menu for explicit command access, undo for post-action recovery, and confirmation dialog for informed pre-action decisions.
Practice the judgment: Imagine this situation: A hidden swipe deletes a row before users see the action label or threshold. Write the person's goal, choose one of these patterns, and show the state that helps the person continue. Use the decision rules and source trail below to explain your choice.
Review the underlying principle →| Dimension | Swipe action | Touch gesture | List view | Action menu | Undo | Confirmation dialog |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UI or UX | UI + UX - Horizontal item-level gesture that reveals or commits row-scoped actions | UI + UX - Touch-first gesture vocabulary and fallback contract for taps, swipes, drags, pinches, and multi-touch interactions | UI + UX - Vertical object-summary browsing surface | UI + UX - Contextual command list for a resource or selection | UX - Post-action recovery behavior | UI + UX - Consequential alert decision |
| UI guidance | Render swipe action as a row-scoped horizontal gesture with clear direction, action label, background affordance, threshold feedback, cancel behavior, and a visible action-menu or button equivalent. | Render touch gesture affordances with visible targets, enough spacing, state feedback, and non-gesture controls for the same outcome when a gesture is path-based, multipoint, hidden, or easy to misfire. | Render a labelled vertical list where each row has a strong primary label, concise supporting text, metadata, status, optional leading media, and row-scoped actions with clear hit targets. | Render a compact menu of verb-led actions scoped to one resource, row, card, selected set, or page object, with clear section headings, object-aware labels, disabled reasons, and separated dangerous commands. | Show a named recovery affordance after the completed action, such as Undo delete for a specific task, near the result or in a consistent status region. | Render an alert-style modal decision with a specific title, consequence description, safe cancellation, and a destructive action label that names the object or scope. |
| UX guidance | Help the person reach a clear task outcome. | Use touch gesture when the product needs direct manipulation on a touchscreen, but treat gestures as part of a larger interaction contract rather than the only way to act. | Use list view when scanning and opening object summaries is faster than comparing columns or inspecting large visual cards. | Make the current object or selection count explicit, update actions when scope changes, and route destructive or privacy-sensitive commands into confirmation, undo, restore, or review instead of running silently. | Let users move quickly through frequent reversible actions, then recover from mistakes after seeing the result. | Help the person reach a clear task outcome. |
| Good UI | A message row reveals Archive on left swipe and More actions on right swipe, shows action labels behind the row, snaps back before threshold, and keeps a More menu for the same commands. | A photo viewer supports pinch to zoom, double tap to zoom, plus and minus buttons, a reset button, zoom percent feedback, and a clear pan boundary after zoom. | A ticket list row shows TCK-2048 Database backup failed, a one-line incident summary, Critical status, owner, updated time, selected state, and a labelled More actions menu. | A Customer actions menu has Manage customer, Data requests, and Account risk sections, with Edit customer, Merge customer, Request data export, and Delete customer separated at the end. | Deleting Quarterly report removes it from the list and shows a recovery panel saying Quarterly report deleted with an Undo task button. | Delete Research archive? explains that 14 notes and shared links will be permanently removed, offers Keep archive, and labels the danger action Delete archive. |
| Bad UI | A diagonal scroll inside a list activates a destructive swipe action while the user is trying to read older rows. | A hidden edge swipe deletes a message while the user is trying to scroll the list. | Every row has five unlabeled icon buttons, and the whole row also navigates. | Safe, risky, disabled, external, and value-selection items share the same style and role. | Undo action disappears before users can activate it. | The red destructive action is enabled immediately and sits where users expect the routine primary button. |
| Good UX | A user partially swipes a notification, sees Archive and Mark read labels, releases before threshold, and the row snaps back unchanged. | A user starts swiping a gallery card, sees the next-card preview, changes their mind by moving back under the threshold, and the card snaps back with position unchanged. | A user filters tickets to Critical, selects two rows, opens the details panel for one ticket, then clears the filter and the selected count and active ticket remain understandable. | A user opens Customer actions, chooses Duplicate customer, and receives status that names the customer and keeps focus anchored to the action context. | Undo restores the deleted task to the list and reports Quarterly report restored. | Cancel, Escape, and Keep archive leave the archive unchanged and return focus to Delete archive. |
| Bad UX | A user swipes to scroll a horizontally cramped row and accidentally archives a critical alert. | A user tries to scroll a feed but the product interprets a short diagonal movement as a destructive swipe action. | A user tries to preview a file but the row click opens navigation while the small trailing icon deletes the file. | A user activates a menu item that looks like a command but navigates away and loses unsaved context. | The UI promises undo for a side effect that has already notified external recipients. | Every archive, filter, and dismiss action opens the same confirmation until users click through automatically. |
| Best fit | Users repeatedly perform simple item-level actions on touch-first rows. | A touchscreen interaction needs deliberate design for gesture vocabulary, thresholds, feedback, target sizing, cancellation, and equivalent controls. | Users need to scan and act on a collection of objects using compact summaries. | A resource, row, card, selected set, or local page object has several contextual commands. | The action is common and mistakes are likely. | The action is destructive, irreversible, costly, security-sensitive, privacy-affecting, or externally visible. |
| Avoid when | The action is rare, complex, high-impact, non-reversible, or requires review before execution. | The gesture is only an implementation detail inside a more specific pattern such as swipe action, pull to refresh, long press, drag and drop, bottom sheet, carousel, or map view. | Users need to compare many records across shared attributes. | Only one or two commands are needed and visible buttons would be faster. | Recovery would restore only part of the user's lost work. | The action is routine and easily reversible. |
| Required state | Idle row state with visible row identity and discoverable action path. | Touch down or gesture start state that identifies the active target. | Default list state with label or heading, row count or context, visible row summaries, and primary row identity. | Closed trigger or contextual entry point with resource scope. | Normal state before the user action. | Pre-action state with an explicit consequential trigger. |
| Accessibility burden | Expose row action labels with the affected object name, such as Archive Budget review message. | Provide a simple single-pointer alternative for multipoint or path-based gestures unless the gesture is essential. | Use semantic list markup for ordinary object lists; use listbox only when rows are options in a single control. | Give the trigger or menu an accessible name that includes the resource or selected-set scope. | Make the undo control keyboard reachable and programmatically identifiable. | Use alertdialog semantics or platform equivalent when the decision is urgent and requires a response. |
| Common misuse | Making a hidden swipe the only way to archive, delete, complete, or reveal row actions. | Making a hidden gesture the only way to find navigation, delete, refresh, zoom, or edit controls. | Putting too many independent controls in every row until the list becomes a keyboard trap. | Letting a bulk action menu run single-object commands against multiple selected items. | Restoring only part of the prior state while implying full recovery. | Asking users to confirm every routine action until they stop reading. |