Interruption panel

[govuk-design-system]

What

An alert that interrupts the user flow with important information and must be acknowledged before continuing.

Why

Anything else

Draft guidance here below:

When to use this pattern:

• to draw a users attention to important information specific to that point in their journey
• allow users to acknowledge something before continuing
• if important information is styled normally and users are missing it use this pattern - its unexpected so helps to bring attention to essential information

When not to use this pattern:

• for form elements
• for large amounts of content
• the effectiveness of the pattern is based on its unexpected appearance so should be used sparingly

How to use this pattern:

Include a clear heading and use large body text at a minimum size of 24px.

Try to reduce the content down to the minimum amount the user needs. If the user needs to do more than one thing, use extra cards.

Anything else

• For research read a blog post about the patterns use on Verify
• Example on GOV.UK Verify: Check or update your company tax car
• Notes: This pattern has been so successful on the passport renewals service that the team have been able to dramatically reduce the amount of content on the start page.
  Teams have found interrupting users’ flow with this pattern has increased understanding and retention of important information.
  Evidence that the contrast levels of interruption cards help dyslexic users.
• Home office has an Interruption card: Home Office design system

[joelanman]

We first introduced this pattern on Verify:

https://designnotes.blog.gov.uk/2015/09/21/helping-users-understand-gov-uk-verify-designing-with-data/

This post includes the iteration of the design that was in the A/B test. We then iterated to the simpler white on blue design, with fewer images.

[joelanman]

Guidance looks good, I think I'd make more of the 'unusual' aspect. So maybe move

the effectiveness of the pattern is partly based on it’s unexpected appearance so should be used sparingly

to the first section 'When to use'

Or something like 'Start with normally styled content. If you find users are not taking in important or unexpected content, try changing the content, then try this pattern.' but maybe worded better

[owenm6]

@joelanman If I keep the bit in to warn people not to overuse the pattern and add this to the 'when to use' -

• if important information is styled normally and users are missing it use this pattern - its unexpected so helps to bring attention to essential information

[timpaul]

In order to provide reusable coded examples for this pattern we'll need to first do the following:

1. Create a more generic version of the panel component, which is currently designed for confirmation page panels

2. Create inverted versions of components that are commonly used inside interruption cards. Buttons definitely, but also radios and numbered lists

[owenm6]

@timpaul We don't recommend using form elements in interruption cards but we could be wrong on that. Buttons and lists etc... for sure though.

[joelanman]

Verify uses radio buttons:

But I think an MVP approach might be good? We might not need radio buttons for an MVP.

[owenm6]

I think we recommended it for fear that people would start adding entire forms into them. MVP approach sounds good.

[timpaul]

We ran a quick naming session in our last X-Gov Design Meetup, using this pattern. Here is the full list of results. Common words to come out of the session were:

• Attention
• Blue
• Call out
• Explain
• Focus
• Guidance
• Important
• Info
• Instruction
• Interstitial
• Learn
• Pause
• Slow
• Stop
• Think

[owenm6]

@timpaul I see 'page' was popular as well. I quite like 'focus page', 'attention page' and 'interruption page'.

[joelanman]

'page' sounds good to me - I don't think this would work with other content outside the blue

[jfranciswebdesign]

We're testing this in our 'File your CIC report and accounts' service.

Users are tending to skim read 'standard' pages that don't require any form of input - that is, any pages where the only thing they can do is read a bit of content and then click a green button to proceed. Presenting the information this way means users are taking the time to stop and read it.

[timpaul]

Good to know @jfranciswebdesign - thanks for sharing

[edwardhorsford]

I'm considering using this as a one-time guide for new users of my service (internal casework users). There's three key bits of information we'd like them to know, and I'm thinking of walking them through it with this style when they first sign in. Thereafter they get a dashboardy type page for the service.

[chrisadesign]

We're using this on our service. We've got 3 cards at the beginning of the service that give key info to users that we moved off the start page where it was consistently missed.

Most users will now stop and read this during usability test. We've had comments on how useful it is, and that if they already knew it they'd just happily skip through.

[edwardhorsford]

We tested a 4 card intro shown after first login.

I'd say it generally helped with comprehension. They seemed to absorb the headings, the body copy less so. I found they clicked through the first page rather quickly - so we may keep the first page as a 'hello and welcome to x' type thing, and make sure the key bits of info are on later pages.

[titlescreen]

Yeah we did implement the screenshot I popped on earlier. It was a while ago and I no longer have access to the repo but I believe that if no option was selected we used a modified GDS error state. With the border to the left of the question group and a message telling them to pick an option. When the claim window opens again you would be able to start claims for both and test them. Or you might be able to pickup with someone at DfE Manchester on the claims team to see if you can get access to the repo and error messages.

…

On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 4:09 PM jim-laney ***@***.***> wrote: We are looking at implementing an interrupt card on the Claim service over at DfE. The idea is to show this interrupt card if you have already started a claim to get back your student loan repayments and then partway through you decide to start a claim to get a payment for teaching maths of physics. We felt that having a button then text link for the second option could be biasing the user to do what we think they should do, rather than what they want to do. If they chose to start a new claim, we will then be deleting the claim in progress so we needed a button rather than a link. Also if possible I'd like to avoid styling buttons like links. So radios felt like the correct decision, the only part I want to improve further is the text on the submit button. We some different options and ended up with submit. It's also worth noting we had a slightly darker blue background to make the white text a bit easier to read. If anyone is interested you can find the HTML here <https://github.com/DFE-Digital/dfe-teachers-payment-service/blob/master/app/views/claims/existing_session.html.erb> and the SCSS here <https://github.com/DFE-Digital/dfe-teachers-payment-service/blob/master/app/assets/stylesheets/components/panel.scss> . [image: image] <https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/13239597/74343449-fba29b80-4da2-11ea-813f-eacfbfe60325.png> Hi. Did you end up implementing this? If so, how did you display the error message if the user tries to continue without selecting a radio button? Not sure how the GDS error message pattern <https://design-system.service.gov.uk/components/error-message/> would work within an interruption card. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6060 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADFAKLNV633ZK42QZOD33XTTCTZFNANCNFSM4ELRF7BQ> .

[Graeme-Laurenson]

Hi, apologies if this is dealt with elsewhere….

We are hoping to use an Interrupt card to help users with Service changes … the card is fine - my question is around the link states.
Please see attached (3) screen grabs

1. Default
2. Hover & Visited
3. Active
   Are these states defined elsewhere?
   Or do they need to be?!
   (Basic contrast checks pass)

Thanks for any help ..

G.

[hannalaakso]

@Graeme-Laurenson The GOV.UK Design System contains styling for links on dark backgrounds, hopefully you can use these for your use case: https://design-system.service.gov.uk/styles/typography/#links-on-dark-backgrounds

[Graeme-Laurenson]

@hannalaakso thanks ... what is missing, is a 'hover & visited' state ..
With a default link on white bg - the 'visited' link goes to 'Purple' (see screengrab)
.. I'm thinking we should give the same visual key for a 'visited' link by using the yellow (Which has a 4.95 contrast ratio) when on the blue.
I also realise this may not suit other bg colours.

[hannalaakso]

@Graeme-Laurenson Thank you for flagging this 👍 Our designers have created an issue to look at this: #1859 Feel free to add any additional thoughts to that issue and to subscribe to the issue to get updates about it.

[CharlotteDowns]

@Graeme-Laurenson have you also been able to update to the new link styles which improve the visibility of hover states on all links including the inverse options.

We're currently looking into visited states and will add our updates to the issue Hanna mentioned.

[asier-hmrc]

Some of the examples above use text at full width. Far too long for good readability of body text or even lead paragraph.

[FeeSloan]

Hi all,

We are implementing the Interruption card approach on our dashboard for a new online digital account. In this example, we are providing information to the user that their account / profile is 'incomplete' and they won't be able to take full advantage of all online portal activities until they complete some further steps. The design & layout of the interruption card worked for us in this context as a way of clearly articulating something important, without blocking the user from proceeding with other online account activity.

We have also explored using the interruption card to inform users that they don't have permission to use some online transactions yet. By using the interruption card in this context, it should create more of a hard stop for our users and some copy to support how they can proceed.

Feedback from research so far has been mixed, with a lot of positives, but also some key challenging themes highlighted below:

• Some users thought the interruption card to be very 'unfriendly' or a 'negative' way of providing information, suggesting the user had failed to do something (essentially they have done, but to be fair, up until this point they wouldn't have had any other opportunity to complete what's being asked of them)
• Only half of our research participants noticed the banner & understood the instructions within, despite the large blue colour & CTA within the banner. We came to the conclusion that this may have been in relation to the research brief & the context of what was being asked of them.

We would love to know if anyone has used the pattern in a similar way or has had any additional feedback from implementing the design

Thanks!
Fee

[quis]

Here’s an example from Emergency Alerts, and plenty more in these pull requests:

• Add a tour for users new to broadcast services notifications-admin#3547
• Improve pacing and sequence of information in the broadcast tour notifications-admin#3596
• Add a tour screen once a broadcast is approved notifications-admin#3632

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[robertjmccarthy]

The MoJ Design System has an Interruption card component coded, documented, and available in Figma.

[CharlotteDowns]

Does anyone have any user research (outside of the really helpful research posted in this thread) to support the use of the interruption card and/or patterns in their services?

[calvin-lau-sig7]

Use the Interruption panel to pause the user’s journey and give them important information

On 16 July 2026, we published an interruption panel of the Panel component and Interruption page pattern, starting from a contribution on the NHS Design System. We thank the team for working with us to get this published!

Our guidance in this pattern is based on:

• Interruption page on NHS Design System
• Interruption card on Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Design System

We’d like to get more feedback from service teams to help us improve this pattern.

Other uses of Interruption pages

We'd particularly like to better understand the ways services use Interruption pages, so that we can provide better guidance on ‘When to use this pattern’ and ‘When not to use this pattern’ to ensure they're used effectively and consistently across government.

Back links and cancel links that go to the same page

We'd like to better understand whether there’s usability or accessibility issues with showing users a cancel link that goes to the previous page, as this would duplicate the functionality of the back link.

The cancel link's link text might also need to show the same link text as the back button to meet WCAG 2.2 success criteria on Consistent Navigation and Consistent Identification.

[adamsilver]

I just wrote a post with thoughts on interruption pages.

I know my thoughts match what Caroline Jarrett has found in her research over the years.

https://adamsilver.io/blog/why-i-dont-use-interruption-pages/

[joelanman]

@adamsilver as you said, the guidance is is that this is an uncommon pattern:

To be fair, the guidance says not to use one unless:

“there’s evidence of a clear need to pause the user journey”

So I wouldn't expect most services to have a need - that doesn't mean there is never one. There are a minority of services where we have tried the normal patterns, they didn't work and interruption pages helped solve the problem.

https://designnotes.blog.gov.uk/2015/09/21/helping-users-understand-gov-uk-verify-designing-with-data/

[CharlotteDowns]

The interruption panel was published as variant to the Panel alphagov/govuk-design-system#6014 component on v6.4 GOV.UK Frontend, 16 July 2026