Design intent
Provide quiet awareness of background work without implying constant recording or attention.
When to use
Use this pattern when its control or information directly helps the current task. Start with a real user scenario rather than adding an AI-themed affordance by default.
Example
Show an assistant as available while its microphone remains off.
This is an illustrative Knoveya scenario, not a claim about a particular shipped product.
Implementation checklist
- Define the trigger, visible state, allowed action, and completion condition.
- Inactive and listening states cannot be confused.
- Cover missing input, unavailable permissions, interrupted work, and partial results where they apply.
- Keep keyboard focus, labels, and recovery behavior understandable without motion.
Trade-offs
Extra controls or explanations add reading and decision effort. Prefer the smallest presentation that exposes the relevant consequence. Do not display a guarantee, metric, or permission that the underlying system cannot enforce.
Verify
Reproduce the example with synthetic data and deliberately trigger its failure path. Inactive and listening states cannot be confused.