Designing a Badge That's Allowed to Say 'We Don't Know'
Deserke Engineering
Engineering Team
Deserke Engineering
1 min read
Published July 20, 2026
- Problem
- Confidence states were being collapsed to binary correct/incorrect in early prototypes.
- Approach
- Six non-hierarchical badge states, each with its own required justification field.
Most software treats an unknown value as an absence — a blank field, a dash, a loading spinner that never resolves. We wanted it to be a stated position instead.
The badge system's six states each needed to be visually distinct without implying a ranking from 'good' to 'bad' — Unknown isn't a failure state, it's an honest one.
The hardest design constraint wasn't visual. It was making sure engineers reached for Unknown when appropriate, instead of quietly rounding up to Possible.
About the author
Deserke Engineering
Engineering Team
Deserke Engineering