As we saw earlier, it's part of most toolkit APIs to provide easy ways to open dialog windows for displaying information, progress reports, and errors to gain a user's attention. However, with great power comes great responsibility; it's important to not interrupt the workflow unless it's really necessary. Think of the many File download complete! or Please wait for update to download... dialog windows you've had to wait for or dismiss and you'll be thinking in the right direction.

So what's the solution? Let's look at how to present non-critical alerts or background progress to the user in a less obstructive manner.