After one successful gesture, do not repeat the same hint

What it is

Once someone has successfully performed a gesture, the system should mark the hint learned and not block them with it again. Repeating the same bubble turns teaching time into interruption. One success is evidence enough: they produced the stroke and saw the consequence. Playing the same sentence again neither consolidates memory (there is no spacing) nor spares attention for the next task.

Why it happens

A hint’s job is one encoding of “you can swipe here.” The successful consequence (mail archived, scale changed) is a stronger reinforcer than the bubble. The same bubble again is learned as modal noise—“dismiss this”—not as the gesture. Repeating per session or per day also implies they did it wrong. The counter should bind to “this gesture committed,” not to “the hint was shown”—shown is not skill.

Studying it

After one success, replay the hint 0 / 1 / 3 more times. Measure task time, annoyance, and whether the gesture is still used. The prediction is that repeats suppress use (people dodge the bubble). Do not treat “hint impressions” as engagement.

Where it stops holding

A gesture whose meaning changed (swipe went from archive to delete) is a new gesture and may be taught once more. Forgetting after a long idle wants retrievable help, not an automatic rerun of the first-run bubble. A wrong completion (stroke right, then undo) should not count as learned. Stopping after one success does not forbid the user reopening teaching.

Applying it

• Stop the hint on one successful commit of that gesture, not on “hint was displayed.”
• Do not reset the same bubble per day or per session.
• Log “shown again after success” as a defect; watch a few people who already swipe to see whether the same sentence still blocks them.

Related

• Same group: C3.32.1 First-launch teaching happens before motive, so little is retained · C3.32.2 Contextual hints should appear at the moment of need · C3.32.4 Teaching should be re-triggerable by the user
• Adjacent: C3.21 Gesture memory load · C3.20 Gesture discoverability
• Search: coach mark fatigue · learned gesture · hint suppression