Any ideas for a half success, half error modal?

Question

I am working on a forecasting tool where a user enters their current week's data and our tool outputs a forecast for the following week's data.

The user can have various sets of data. When our tool runs, it has a loading screen, while the forecasts are being calculated. We have a success modal and a failure modal once the forecast is generated. What should I show if 2 sets of data were successful and 1 had an error?

1. Don't show a success or failure modal, just take the user to their forecasts where the error shows inline for the set that failed.
2. Show a success modal with like "2/3 sets were successful" and then when they dismiss the modal, the error shows inline
3. Show some hybrid success/failure modal
4. Show the failure modal for the one that failed
5. Any other suggestions

If anyone has seen a similar example in the wild (half success/half failure response) and has a reference, that would be amazing! Any advice would also be appreciated.

Answer 1

If your users used to see a modal with success or failure information, I suggest to keep the same mechanism for the mixed results.

Some tips to keep in mind 😉 :

• Make the modals of success, failure and mixed visually different (for example : a big green check for success, a big red cross or exclamation for failure and a big yellow warning for mixed results)
• Add details results for each data set
• And if it's suit your context, a reload link for the failed data set can be time saving for the users

A quick example :

Answer 2

Is this an error? By your description, it seems like it's just a value perceived as negative. If so, it's basically information, and you shouldn't use a modal for informational purposes.

Now, whether this is an error or just plain information, the important part to focus on is:

• Should (or could) the user take any action to solve this?
• If so, will the user be able to continue the flow, or is this something that interrupts the flow and requires the user to take important action?

If the answer to both questions above is YES, then you can show a modal and explain what is wrong and what the user can do about it.

If the answer to any of the questions above is NO, then you shouldn't even use a modal. Hence, your first option is the correct one.

Just in case, I highly recommend reading the article Modal & Nonmodal Dialogs: When (& When Not) to Use Them, which explains in great detail the rationale behind my answer (it's quite long, so I can't quote it here).